Star Effect
by stormwolf3710
Summary: What if something was found on the moon and a entire universe was created to hide its secrets? What if Earth used those designs to create their own navy? And what if it was the Asari who first made contact? A idea I've been sitting on for some time.
1. Chapter 1

-May 2157, Viper Nebula, Skyllian Verge. Asari diplomatic vessel _Sofia Fos_ -

A sleek blue vessel sat in the middle of space, silver starlight gleaming off its curves. More artwork than space faring vessel the ship would have looked like it had just came off a showroom floor if not for the terrible gashes that raked across the back of the ship and the dark smoke that poured from its engines.

The beautiful image was tarnished as an explosion ripped through the port side of the ship, its side now billowing the same blue black smoke as the ship bucked against multiple smaller impacts raining down on its hull. The secondary impacts were not weapons fire but parts of the hull from its last escort bouncing off it. While the ship was on the far range of its attackers cone of fire its damaged engines meant that every second spent in real space was another second for the gunners of the enemy ship to cycle the mass drivers and and fire another round.

Inside the ship a dozen blue humanoids busily set about determining the damage to their ships systems. Their crisp military actions as seemingly otherworldly as their beauty and grace. Only one member of the crew seemed to not be performing some sort of task. Sitting in the command chair the woman, for it very much was a woman though her age like that of her crewmates was hard to tell, schooled her features so as not to show her worry before turning to address the captain.

"Captain what's the status of the ship" The woman asked in a calm sure voice that had been trained over the centuries to not let any of her fear slip though.

"That last attack practically crippled us matriarch, I'm getting red and yellow lights across the board. Weapons and shields are out, coms are down to short range audio, and the engines will only last us another minute, good news though is that we can make it to the relay in half that time." Replied the captain as another hit rocked their ship. More pieces of what had been the _Theia elpitha_ bouncing off of their hull "New data coming in. life support is barely holding on and navigation is now down. If we make it to the relay we will be jumping blind."

They were already on the edge of explored space. Their meeting spot chosen due to the need for secrecy and their contacts paranoia. The council had only agreed to the meeting after the matriarch had agreed to take what had amounted to a small fleet with her. A fleet that they had thought would be enough to deal with any double crosses. But the council nor the matriarch had been expecting to be ambushed by a sizeable portion of the Batarian Home Fleet halfway through their discussions.

"Goddess help us but anything is better than staying here and dealing with these pirates. Set course for the relay, divert all power to the engines and start blasting out an emergency beacon and have all commandos prep for boarding." Commanded the matriarch gripping the back of the captains seat to hold herself steady as the ship accelerated.

"You want us to repel a boarding party. Do you really think those slavers will follow us through?" asked the navigations officer who was patching up a cut on the com officers head.

"Most likely they would, the dammed Batarians wouldn't want it getting out that they attacked an asari diplomatic vessel and the fleet accompanying it." replied the matriarch in an offhand fashion as she watched the mass relay grow closer and closer. The matriarch tried to be strong for her crew but her heart was filling with dread, the relay they were running for was mostly unmapped though intel said it should take them somewhere between Turian space and deeper into the Skyllian Verge

The sleek Asari ship cut through space as its engines started to grow white from the extra power being forced though its damaged power conduits. Behind it the Batarian fleet started to split down the center in a tactic that was not only designed to have the faster frigates encircle the fleeing ship but give the large dreadnaught a clear line of fire with its main gun.

The matriarch had to give it to whoever was behind the attack, they had really put their all into making sure her group didn't make it back from their meeting with their contact. In fact she still wasn't sure her contact was not responsible for the attack. They had been on their last leg out of the system taking a minute to get their small fleet of seven ships aligned and in formation when a Batarian fleet came out of nowhere and practically rammed into them.

The stars seemed to explode around the small vessel as near misses from missiles started to rock the ship, its small but powerful engines pushing it along as bullets from the frigates whizzed by. Reaching to relay the engines started to sputter and flicker, the core inside sending out blasts of energy in its death throes before the engines died out. Just as it seemed that they would not make it the blue glow of the relay got brighter as it spun up and a bolt of blue energy reached out and grabbed the ship shooting it out into the unknown reaches of space.

-Relay 314, somewhere near terminus space _Far Ranger_ -

Admiral Corso Williams watched as his fleet moved around in space outside of his ship. His ships some of the newest models the alliance had to offer were part of ninth fleet dedicated to the exploration of space outside of Galactic Alliance borders. Staring out into space he watched the small dots of the fleet tenders head off towards the relic, some of them stopping and laying the groundwork for the Golan one defense platform that would be built next to the strange tuning fork.

The turning forks as the fleet called them were as big a mystery to them as the exotic element zero that that it required to operate. The cache of information that had been discovered on mars during the early days of inner system colonization had explained the purpose of the web of tuning forks that crisscrossed Alliance space and apparently the greater galaxy. Both its purpose to move ships from one point to another and its hidden purpose to guide those who found it down a specific technological path.

A path that relied on the exotic element that was entirely absent from their home system. Not that it mattered as they had already started down a vastly different path before the discovery of mass effect technology. Because of this hidden secret each relay that was found had its targeting data of nearby systems copied then scrubbed.

The next step was setting up the Golan space defense platforms that the fleet tenders were busy buzzing around. The space stations, almost the size of a destroyer in its self were not cheap and therefor when and where they were constructed was heavily regulated. If the relay was in dead space outside of a nebula it got a couple Golan ones or maybe a larger Golan two if it was a well-traveled hyperlane. But the ones that existed inside a solar system especially one of the capital planets got the Golan threes, a twenty-eight-hundred-meter-long space station capable of housing its own wing of starfighters and holding its own against a group of destroyers by itself.

This was the last on in this sector of Alliance space. Data from their outermost colony planet of Shanxi had brought them here. All other mass relays shot off into unexplored space. "Well unexplored for now" Corso thought, as soon as the construction crews arrived to build the space station his fleet would be using the nav data to set off and see what was at the other end of the relay.

Turning to stare at the large holographic display in the middle of the bridge Admiral Williams checked on the formation of his fleet. His three star destroyers sitting proudly in the center of the fleet, the two more avian looking Defender-class Star Destroyers trailing behind their more angular Nebula-class Star brethren All around them his six Majestic-class heavy cruisers formed an outer shell of defense against any attack.

In the back of his fleet his singular Endurance-class fleet carrier and four Agave-class picket ships were being protected by the remainder of his MC-30 frigates, their smooth fishlike hull standing in contrast to the more mechanical and angular designs of the carrier. his ships were arranged in a defensive position with his gunboats circling the outside of the fleet while the cruisers created a barrier between the destroyers and whatever might come out of the relay.

Because he was going to go explore unknown space he had been given command over a much larger fleet than he expected. Though he wondered if the twenty-one ship fleet would send the wrong message, he knew that military command were afraid of them bumping into whatever dark force had caused the Prothens to run and hide. But what if they ran into another alien race, one that was friendly. would the large fleet on their doorstep cause them to panic and attack or run and hide?

Getting ready to hand the bridge over to his XO and rest for the night the admiral was startled when the rings that sat in the center of the relic started to spin up. As the Admiral watched stunned a small part of his brain started shouting out orders getting his people ready to greet whatever was coming though.

-Relay 314 Sofia Fos-

"Lock down decks three along with decks seven through nine" Yelled one of the crewmembers as her fingers quickly tapped commands into the computer.

"Captain all systems show red, everything except backup life support and maneuvering thrusters are out." Shouted another crewmember who quickly leaned back avoiding the sparks that shot out of her console as a random power surge short circuited it.

"What about coms? We need to get a message of help out as soon as we can before those pirates decide to follow us." The Captain said now seated in the chair the Matriarch had been in.

"Um captain I am afraid we may have larger concerns at the moment." Stated the matriarch as she stared out the forward observation window.

"And what ohh mighty matriarch could be more concerning than being in a dead ship with a large fleet behind us." Growled the captain as she tried to control the circus that was her bridge.

Raising her hand the matriarch simply pointed out the window. Turning to see what the matriarch was pointing at the captain's mouth fell open in astonishment. "I do believe having a large unknown fleet ahead of us would be much more concerning."

The entire bridge stopped moving as each crewmember turned to look out the windows at the large fleet surrounded the relay. Near twenty some unknown ships were floating in the space around them as numerous smaller craft that she could only assume were fleet tenders and fighters buzzed around the fleet moving from ship to ship. But what amazed the matriarch the most was the size of the fleet, while it's hard to gauge the size of anything in space she could swear that most of those ships were larger than a Turian dreadnought.

From what she could see outside the window there were five or six different types of ships floating around them, most looked like metal triangles but there were some with more curved natural lines that looked like they were grown instead of built.

As she was looking out she noticed two small crafts fly slowly towards the ship, bright lights turning on and slowly working their way along the ship. When one of the fast dark craft darted in front of the observation window she was able to make out a bit more of the craft. It was a long sleek ship that with a neck that seemed to stretch for five or six meters as it slowly glided in front of them, the body that attached to the neck had a darkened cockpit which the matriarch estimated could fit two Asari in it, and a bank of large engines seated right behind them.

"Matriarch the small ships are scanning us, they seem to be searching for something in our computers." The Captain said astonishment in her voice. That these aliens computers could talk with her ships was interesting and started to raise questions in her mind about who exactly they were.

"Let them, they are probably wondering why an alien ship has popped up right in the middle of their fleet. "She said trying to calm the crew. Her own extensive history with dealing with other cultures told her to move slowly. And hey them not shooting right away was a better start than some she had experienced in her early years working for the Asari council. " As long as they only access stuff that is common knowledge to the galaxy let them, it might turn out that they are friendly." Said the matriarch though she privately wondered why a friendly species would have such a large fleet and what they were planning to do with it.

"I'm sure the group who discovered the Yahg said the same thing" Muttered the captain before turning back to her crew. "Ok I want everyone to start the fallen star protocol, secure and lock any sensitive information or technology and get ready to destroy and abandon the ship."

\- Relay 314 _Far Ranger-_

Admiral Williams sensed more than heard the two visitors to the bridge come up behind him. Both of them obviously roused from bed by the sounds of their voices. "Corso if this is another bloody drill I'm going to let my commando's use the hallway outside your quarters as target practice" Grumbled the dark-skinned man standing in full battle armor, his helmet tucked away under his arms.

The man's companion stood beside him in what appeared on first glance to be a long flowing bathrobe with a small metal cylinder hanging off her leather belt. Her clothing along with her pale white skin and shocking red hair stood in stark contrast to the man though Corso knew she was every bit the fighter the man was.

"Because of the nature of the current situation I'm going to let that threat against a commanding officer slide Major Vau" Corso said stressing the word major though his tone and the twinkle in his eyes gave away a hint of playfulness.

Before Vau could respond the woman worked her way into the conversation with the skill and experience that came from having to separate the two on more than one occasion. "What is with the alarms? I had just gotten John put down for the night and my comm started blaring with a message calling me up here." She said mentioning her son John Sheppard, the only child on this military expedition. Her brining John along with her had caused some of the crew to call her Sacagawea behind her back, which had caused them to undergo a one on one self-defense course with her that ended with them on the mat bleeding and bruised.

"We have made contact with an unknown vessel of alien origin"

" Ha-ha leave it to Mr. Overachiever to complete our mission before even leaving the system". Corso bellowed as he let out a loud laugh.

"They came through the relay" Corso said causing Williams to instantly stop laughing and his open happy expression immediately morph into the serious expression of a seasoned command officer. Sheppard's face also hardened and she moved over to look over the shoulder of one of the sensor officers.

"Their only appears to be one ship mam" The officer replied predicting her next question. "The ship seems heavily damaged if the holes in it are anything to go buy. And either they are choosing not to contact us or are unable to do so."

"But our computers were able to talk to theirs?" Sheppard asked turning back around to look at Admiral Williams. If the ship came through the relay then it was probably using similar technology to that found in the Mars ruins. Technology they had cracked a long time ago.

"Yes though the computer is still skimming though theirs trying to create a language database to allow us to talk to them." Admiral Williams said.

"Which is why you want me around to greet them if they do come aboard." Sheppard said cracking a small smile and trying to diffuse some of the stress in the air "You never have been that good at first impressions"

Admiral Williams reply was cut off as one of the technicians announced that they now had a visual feed on the ship from their reconnaissance vessels. The cameras slowly panned over the ship showing extensive battle damage to its hull as well as whole sections opened to space. As it drew closer to what appeared to be the main bridge Major Vau and Admiral Williams both let out a small whistle that earned a defeated sigh from Commander Shepard as well as a phantom pang where he wallet would be as she realized she would be having to pay out a bet she never thought she would lose.

\- Relay 314 Sofia Fos-

Back on board the Asari ship the matriarch and her crew were forced to sit and wait while the unknown fleet worked on translating their languages so they could talk. After what felt like an hour they noticed two of the smaller triangular ships start to move towards them.

"Arieth send a message to the commandos and have them prepare to repel any possible boarding actions." Commanded the matriarch, the crew on the scout ship must have seen the action in the bridge because they seemed to be waving with both hands now and making some kind of gestures.

"What do you think they are trying to say?" Wondered Arieth looking at the figures in the cockpit from her communications station, she had to admit they looked kind of comical. The crew watched as the two ships drew closer to them. Its design and large engines spoke of speed and danger, this was a ship that was meant to strike fast and hard.

"Could these be some kind of destroyer?" asked the matriarch looking at Laranth.

"I don't think so, I think they could be a frigate. I mean look at those guns, yeah they are mean looking but they only seem to have about a dozen. And its size, it's only a little bit smaller than the _Sofia_ and were about 500m in length." Said the captain looking back out at the scout ship which was slowly moving away from them and back towards the main fleet.

"Mam im getting something over the comm's. Its full of static but I think it's from the fleet." Said Arieth,

"Put them of screen, matriarch if you would take the captain's chair I believe this is more in your range of expertise" said Laranth motioning for the matriarch to take a seat, fixing her long dress the matriarch walked over to the captain's chair and got comfortable before giving the com officer permission to establish the link.

"Its audio only since we are on backup systems. Also the dish seemed to have taken some damage so expect static in the feed." Said Arieth as she established the link and ran it through multiple systems to clean it up as best she could.

"I'll put it up now" The distorted but masculine voice came over the comms, static interrupting every other word.

"Atten*static* Unknown *static*sel This is *static**static* ranger"

"Hold on I'll try to clear it up some more, there that should do it." Said the comm officer frantically running every program she had been taught at the naval academy and a few she had picked up off the streets of Omega.

"Attention unknown vessel this is the Galactic Alliance Destroyer _Far Ranger_. The two frigates coming up on your position are going to latch on to you with their tractor beams and bring you into one of the landing bays where we can assess the damage to your ship. Do not worry we mean you no harm, please respond if you can understand this message." Said the voice in a calm and soothing tone before stopping to give them a chance to respond, while on the Asari ship they waited for the ships to start to tow them in wondering what a tractor beam was.

Seconds after that thought crossed their minds they felt a slight tug as they started to move, they noticed a thick blue beam that was being emitted from a dish on the frigate that seemed to be latched onto their ship like some kind of rope.

"Wow I wonder how they are doing that?" wondered the captain.

"Magnets maybe," The Matriarch said in a small attempt at humor "I'm not really sure. Though I'm sure you can ask them once we get on one of their ships." Said the Matriarch equally frightened and astonished at this technology. She didn't know how strong these 'tractor beams' were but if they could just reach out and snatch a ship out of space it was frightening to think what could be done with it.

"Arieth try to bring up our coms. I would like to talk to our would-be rescuers." The matriarch said straightening her dress as best she could and sitting down in the captain's chair.

"Ok mam you should be good to go. I latched on to their broadcast but you will only be able to get audio for the moment"

"Greetings Admiral Williams I am Matriarch Benezia of the Asari republics. On behalf of my crew and myself I would like to extend our deepest gratitude to you and your men for any assistance you can give."

"Yeah and thank you for not blasting us with those big cannons you have on your ship" Muttered Laranth watching some strange X shaped fighters fly by them as they moved farther into the fleet. If Benezia heard the comment she made no remark but instead continued talking.

"Though I wish our first meeting could be under better circumstances." She said keeping her voice level though she was wondering how they would react once she dropped the anvil. "Our ship has been heavily damaged and we fear that those who attacked us will soon be coming through the relay to try and finish the job."

On board the _Far Ranger_ this caused a gasp and for the crew to begin muttering amongst themselves. "Ugg of course something had to go wrong. First, we find a group of space babes who are just dying to show their gratitude to the brave men who rescued them. And now we might be getting drug into some stellar war. Why does the universe always do this to me?" Groaned Major Vau rubbing his hand over his face in despair.

"I'm sure the galaxy has more important things to do that ruin your chance at a date Major." Said Williams before turning to look at Sheppard "Hannah you're the diplomatic one how do you think we should treat this?"

"I'm not totally sure Admiral; we don't even know who these people are or who is after them. I think for now we should treat them like we would anyone else looking for asylum. We can bring them in and repair their ship and talk to them until we can learn more about this situation. And if the people chasing them come through the 'fork then we will try to set up a dialog with them." Said Sheppard looking at the screen showing the picture of the inside of the alien ship. Something about this was causing the skin on her neck to crawl, but she wasn't sure if it had to do with these aliens or something else.

"Ok I think we can do that. But I really don't want to be the first officer to go down in history for dragging us into a galactic war." Said Williams "But just in case why don't you go prepare in case we need you to lead the troops in battle"

"Admiral are you still there?" Asked the voice of the matriarch over the intercom. Even though she wasn't letting it show the Admiral figured she was worried, he would be if he was in a dead ship surrounded by unknown aliens.

"Yes, sorry for leaving you hanging like that I was just talking some things over with my officers. We are more than willing to bring you in and give you any assistance necessary to repair your ship but we are not looking for a battle to fight. This was supposed to be a peaceful mission of exploration not a military operation."

"Peaceful explores?' said Matriarch Benezia in disbelief. "Who sends so many warships if their only mission is to make contact with another species?"

"Maybe they know something we don't. Or maybe they ran into a race that has made them weary enough to always expect the worst" Said Laranth her eyes glued out the viewport as she watched all of the alien ships fly past. What she wouldn't give to get in the seat of those fighters, hell she would even like to give one of those bombers a try. From what she could see there were three or four different kinds of snubfighters and bombers flying around like bees guarding a hive.

"And we do not wish to drag you into one Admiral," said Benezia trying to calm the man's fears. 'but on the other hands those ships look really powerful. And depending on the outcome of the next few days we could have a new ally and be able to get rid of the Batarians once and for all. Who knows we may even be able to clean out the terminus while we are at it.' She thought causing a wicked smile to play over her beautiful face.

"I am glad to hear that Matriarch. But just in case this doesn't work out can you tell me about the people chasing you?" asked the admiral.

"Of course Admiral though I doubt they will want to talk or listen to reason." Said the matriarch.

"And what makes you say that Matriarch. Everyone is reasonable to some degree and I do not know any captains who would put his crew in harm's way if it could be avoided." Said Williams wondering at just what was chasing these people.

"That it true of most Admiral. But what drives these people is greed and fear, the greed of conquest and the fear of what their masters would do to them should they fail. The race that is chasing us are known as the Batarians and are ruled over by a military regime known as the hegemony. Their entire economy runs on slavery and piracy. And they only thing they fear is what their masters back home will do to them if they fail." Benezia said before waiting for the response.

"That is informative Matriarch. Just in case they do end up being unreasonable could you tell me how many ships were chasing you before you jumped through the..Relay" Asked the Admiral.

"I think we are all going to get that information Admiral" said the Matriarch as the Relay once again sprang to life.

-Relay 314 Terminus Space-

Everyone onboard the Alliance ships watched as ship after ship jumped into the system. The bridge of the _Far_ Ranger was soon filled with the noise of organized chaos as people began shouting out orders and taking readings of the incoming ships. Over the next thirty seconds they watched as over three dozen craft jumped into the system. Most appeared in size to be cruisers and frigates but with alien ships you couldn't be sure.

"Admiral" said one of the yeomen on the scanners. "All alien ships seem to contain large amounts of Element Zero. Also from the looks of it they seem to be built around long hollow shafts in the center of their ships that we believe could be railguns." The Admiral knitted his brow in worry. The Alliance knew about Element Zero though had never worked it into their machinery, though if these people had, then were they the enemy the computer warned them about? No, the ships didn't look right, they looked more straight and boxy instead of like something he would expect to see on his plate.

"Unknown alien craft you are entering sovereign Alliance space. Please cease acceleration and reply." Said the admiral once the bridge crew had targeted them, thankfully the Asari computers had contained a large database of languages including one that bore the name of the oncoming aliens.

"Pitiful Alliance craft it would suit you to show respect to your betters. If you surrender your selves and the Asari then the Hegemony may be merciful." Said a figure that shocked the Admiral as he looked at the thing on the view screen. Though male and humanoid it was utterly alien at the same time. Its body was made up of wrinkled yellow skin and its large head held four bug like eyes sitting above two slits where the nose would be. For a moment, the Admiral wondered if they would smell as bad as they look.

"Alien craft please identify yourselves and cease acceleration or we will be forced to shoot. We only wish to talk but the Asari are under our protection and if you fire on them or one of our ships we will be forced to respond in kind." Said the Admiral trying to keep his cool in the face of this puffed up schoolyard bully.

"We are the Hegemony, the rightful rulers of this space. We demand that you surrender your ships and the Asari into our command." Said the Batarian captain.

"I'm sorry but we can't do that." Corso said growing slightly irritated at the Batarian captain. "We would be more than willing to meet with a representative and talk this out but if you do not cease your acceleration or change vectors we will be forced to take action." Said the admiral before muting the mic on his end for a second. "Ensign send word I want every ship to activate shields and charge their plasma batteries. Call down to Sheppard and tell her to begin the meld."

"Yes sir" said the ensign and no sooner had she sent the message than he felt a familiar presence in the back of his mind. He knew that everyone in the crew from pilots and gunners down to technicians and engineers would be feeling the same thing.

Down in the center of the ship Hannah Sheppard sat in the middle of a dark room, its walls filled with monitors showing the space around her. Her bright brown eyes were closed as she concentrated and reached out to begin the meld. She imagined herself at the center of a bright spider web, tendrils shooting off to touch the minds of the people serving on the ship. Then she imagined the web growing and reaching to the other ships.

Bright lights appeared as she connected to her fellow knights on the other ships of the fleet. Each one the center of their own web of connected minds. Thankfully the Senate and Council had deemed the mission important enough to send a large number of knights and masters allowing them to form a proper meld. As the smaller webs on each individual ship connected to the larger one each ship became a single entity in the battle meld, the crew working as one to combat the upcoming threat.

Hannah couldn't help but smile at what she had done. There had been a time when connecting to the minds of her squad mates had been a heavy task and now here she was ready to organize the battle against an unknown enemy. She thought about trying to connect the Asari ship that now was being moved by a tug to free up the frigates, but didn't in case it damaged the meld in some way.

Back on the bridge the Admiral was growing tired of the Batarian and his incessant demand that he surrender his ships. But he allowed the belligerent man, if he was a man, to keep talking. Allowing the 'Pearl Harbor' his Endurance Carrier to disgorge all of its heavy fighters and bombers. Though he preferred the fast and agile TIE predators with their swept back wings or, the trusty XJ7 X-Wing which had been among the first ships the Alliance had produced. The 'Pearl Harbor' mostly carried the heavy avian looking E-wing space superiority fighters and the heavy BTL-S8 K-Wings whose nose mounted swivel cannon could rip apart the hulls of ships and whose proton torpedoes could vaporize whatever was left.

Laranth watched as an endless swarm of fighters and bombers flew past them. Her head crest itched from wanting to be inside one of those flying through space, and her hands flexed automatically as she watched some pilot showing off, for their benefit by doing a barrel roll right past their view port. Her daydreams about alien fighters and their most likely handsome pilots were broken by the matriarchs astounded voice.

"Why are they launching so many fighters? What is wrong with these people? Everyone knows that fighters are no match for bigger ships." Said the matriarch confused why swarms of fighters and bombers seemed to be flying out towards the enemy fleet. Meanwhile Laranth was amazed at how in sync all the ships seemed to be and would have wondered if they had VI flying them if it wasn't for the figures she saw in the cockpits when a plane got close enough.

"What do you think those domes are?" asked Arieth pointing at one of the X shaped craft that was speeding past. Laranth had noticed them as well. Each of the X or E shaped craft seemed to have a small red or blue dome behind the cockpit but she couldn't see anything like it on the small eyeball looking fighters with the swept back wings or the large K shaped bombers.

"Maybe some kind of sensor dish? I don't know but I wonder where the guns on those ships are I haven't seen anything that looks like a mass driver canon?" responded Laranth. Before she could say anything else they felt the ship jump and they seemed be moving faster towards the large ship in the center.

"What's going on, what's happening out there" Demanded Benezia just below a yell. Thankfully for her crew one of the engineers was able to get the cameras on the ships working again and they were given center row to the battle.

End Chapter

Chapter 2

-Relay 314 Terminus Space-

"This is your final warning Batarian ship, break off or be fired upon." Warned the Admiral, his hands held up like a conductor's ready to drop and start a symphony. Only his orchestra was made up of kilometer long ships with enough combined firepower to glass a planet.

"Enough with this senseless prattle; if you will not give us what we desire then we shall take it from you" said the Batarian captain before cutting the connection.

"Bastard didn't even give us his name now how will we know who to send the flowers to." Said the Admiral earning a chuckle from his bridge crew. "All ships prepare for engagement; Fighter squadrons will sweep in and clear out their air support. Bombers and frigates will harry the ships while destroyers will move in to provide artillery support. Let's show the Seventh Fleet they aren't the only ones who can deal with pirates." He said earning a yell from his crew.

The Admiral watched as the Batarian ships moved into position. They moved like a stationary defense platform trying to line up a shot compared to his more maneuverable ships. And if his crew was right then they were only able to fire those big guns straight ahead, while his more angular ships had more than a one hundred and eighty degree firing arc in all three axis.

The admiral watched calmly as the enemy ships lined up on his. If the computer they had discovered on mars was any indication then they would be using Element Zero powered mass drivers. The Alliance were familiar with mass launchers since they seemed to be a favorite of some of the pirate gangs, but no one knew what would happen when hit by one of those slugs. Though the admiral wasn't worried, with the invention of space flight one of the first types of shields that had to be invented were ray shields to stop micro meteors from hitting the hulls of their ships.

The first salvo from the Batarian fleet shot out towards the Alliance ships. Instead of bunching up each one of the Batarian ships picked a different target, unknowingly spelling their doom. The swarm of fighters and bombers seemed to open and allow the slugs to pass harmlessly between them before closing up and continuing their assault.

The slugs themselves kept going until impacting the shield of the Alliance vessels. Luckily for the Batarians ray shielding, though the oldest type of shield in the alliance was also the weakest. Most ships dedicated their shield power to their energy shields to stop the plasma bolts that blasters and turbolasers used.

"Sir hits reported all across the fleet. No damage so far but some of the majestic class cruisers report ray shield strength down to sixty percent." Said the engsin "Destroyers are reading at eighty to ninety percent."

"What about us the large ship fired right towards us?" Asked the admiral, usually he wouldn't have time for idle curiosity in the middle of a battle. But thanks to the meld everyone already knew their purpose and all of the ships were trying to move out of the line of fire. Thankfully his ships were flat and triangular so they presented a hard target head on or from the sides. But if taken from the top or the bottom they were a juicy target, and God forbid if one of those slugs hit the base of the command towers.

"She didn't even register it sir. The 'Rangers' shields only noticed a slight spike before charging back to full." Laughed the ensign.

"So those ships can eventually eat though our shields. But they haven't fired yet so I'm guessing it takes a while to reload. And then they have to actually line up a shot and I have already given them their one free one."

Back on the Asari ship the crew watched in amazement as the Alliance ships just seemed to buck off the attack and keep moving. Just as astounding was the speed of the ships. Each one seemed to maneuver better than any frigate in citadel space, able to move out of the line of fire. And if those cannons on the side of their ships were any indication they would be able to fire from any direction. But where were the mass driver cannons was what the Matriarch was wondering.

The matriarch watched the battle unfold, with the cameras on line and now the scanners she was able to get a good look at the fleet of alien ships that surrounded them. The first thing she noticed was the size of the fleet, with scanners now active she could get a good read on their size. The smallest ships not counting the fighters or those believed to be fleet tenders clocked in at four hundred meters while the three in the center were each as long as the Destiny Ascension.

"Captain there must still be something wrong with the scanners because I am not detecting any element zero whatsoever on the Alliance ships." Said the junior officer at the scanner station. "But I am reading massive amounts of power building up in their guns, goddess there are hundreds of kilowatts of power being sent to each individual gun."

"Matriarch the Alliance vessel is hailing the Batarian dreadnaught, the dreadnaught is not responding, the Batarian fleet is charging weapons and firing into the Alliance fleet" said the scanner technician giving an overview of what everyone could see on the main screens. The Batarian fleet made up of two dozen frigates, one dozen cruisers, and a medium sized dreadnought let loose with their guns sending round after planet shattering round towards the allied fleet at a significant percentage of the speed of light.

The second salvo from the Batarian ships speed towards the outer most part of the fleet and impacted against the shields of the avian looking Majestic-class cruisers causing them to flare under the impact. Before they could get off another shot they noticed that the entire fleet was moving in closer all the while spewing out what could only be fighters and bombers. Slightly worried by the numbers but positive that their own defenses could handle it the Batarian commander ordered his meager squadrons of fighters to launch and intercept what they could.

As the fighters moved to hassle the incoming swarm of ships, the large Batarian dreadnought started to spin up its main gun, aiming at the center vessel of the enemy fleet. Before it could fire another continent shattering round, brilliant bolts of blue and red light shot from the three larger vessels and slammed into the Batarian ship. In seconds, the blue ion bolts hit the ship causing energy to spider web across the ship short circuiting the dreadnoughts shields and allowing the vicious red blaster bolts to burn though the ship's hull, ripping it to pieces and causing men and materials to vaporize from the heat of the plasma

The matriarch watched as the battle unfolded, this new race used strange weaponry that was faster and more accurate than their mass effect cannons. Their ships were able to quickly close the distance and seemed able to take out only the hard points they wanted to without cracking the whole ship apart like the mass effect cannons were designed to. Outside she watched one of the cruisers start to drift as explosions rocked its hull, the second and third rounds had already taken out a number of frigates that hadn't been able to maneuver fast enough and cracked them wide open.

Closer to the action the small Alliance fighters smashed through the Batarian Airforce before turning around to chase them. Dots of pinkish red shot out from the planes only to impact the Batarian ships. The torpedoes passed right through the ships kinetic barriers and impacted the fighters blasting them apart. And the plasma from the fighter's blasters ate into their armor until hitting a fuel line or one of the missiles.

Bypassing the dogfight, the K-Wings buzzed the ships, their rotating turrets on its nose firing at any fighters who had not been taken out by the X or E-wings. Lining up on their respective targets multiple squadrons of K-wings comprised of three bombers dived towards their hardpoints, the onboard astromechs painting the most effective place to hit. Or guestamating since it was an alien ship, but it didn't take a fully functional AI to say hitting the main guns and engines would be a good idea. Getting a hard target lock on the Batarian frigates guns and shield emplacements the heavy bombers let fly with their advanced proton torpedoes.

As the K-wings screamed over the Batarian ships their torps impacted the hull, their speed allowing them to slip through the kinetic barrier like flies in a screen door. Ripping into the hull the torpedoes burst through before exploding in a rain of plasma, the energy released breaking the hull open in places and sending gouts of fire into space and leaving what had not been incinerated by the blast to be sucked out into the cold of space.

With the main guns and shields down on the frigates the bombers moved off to tackle the larger targets. The cruisers were next to be attacked, the K-wings bunching up their proton torpedoes leaving a trail of reddish-orange fire in their wake. Seeing flame spout from many of the larger ships the bombers turned tail and headed back towards the fleet, their job done they were going to leave the clean up to the large cannons of the destroyers and cruisers.

As the dreadnought was being torn apart by the explosions the battle had started to heat up between the smaller ships. The Batarian fighters being quickly taken out by the torpedoes from the Alliance fighters had allowed the small cruisers and bombers to close unmolested. As the cruisers drew closer to the Batarian fleet they let loose with their own cannons like that of the larger ship. Their bolts slamming into the shields of the Batarian ships as their more powerful shields shrugged off the point defense lasers. The Batarian ships had to quickly adapt to using a wolf pack formula and having two ships deal with one alliance ship while a third tried to get a shot off with its main cannons.

The crew of the Asari ship watched in amazement as the Alliance ships moved right into knife fighting range, even moving up beside the enemy ship to deliver a full broadside. And the strange energy weapons they were using were frightening. At first, they assumed it must be some sort of laser but after seeing the damage they were now thinking it was plasma based.

Benezia remembered Aethyta saying something about plasma when she talked about how the Asari needed to branch out. Benezia was starting to thank she was right as she watched the bolts of blue and red plasma bypass the shield to hit the hull. Though they seemed to be moving as fast if not faster than mass driver rounds they didn't have enough mass to be stopped by the shields and were allowed to pass though.

'What we could do with this technology' thought Benezia watching the battle on the screen, "And those blue bolts they seem to be designed to take out shields and systems if the floating ships are any clue'

Soon the laser fire along with the mass driver rounds started to overwhelm the shields allowing the Batarians to land some killing blows. As the alliance frigates started to retreat to let their shields recharge, the destroyers who had been moving into position let out a volley of bolts to cover their escape. The triangular design of the alliance ships allowed them to point every single gun at one target and fire on them.

Seeing the bombers and destroyers ripping through his fleet and feeling the ship breaking apart around him the Batarian commander sent out a distress call that had been given to him if he failed. As the message went out the commander watched as the strange bombers ripped into his ship, their nose mounted turrets taking care of his defenses while their glowing torpedoes drilled into his hull.

With their dreadnought dead in the water and most of their smaller ships destroyed or taken out of the fight by well-aimed shots to their engines the Batarian fleet turned tail and tried to flee from the battle. Instead of pursuing the Alliance fleet allowed the four cruisers and eight frigates to activate the mass relay and leave the battlefield. After watching the battle and the power shown by this unknown race the matriarch fell back into her chair physically and emotionally exhausted by the weeks trials.

"Matriarch we are being hailed by the Alliance ship again, the tug is going to take us to their largest ship where we will meet their Admiral and can talk." said Arieth after a moment breaking the silence that had been smothering the entire ship ever since the battle started. Even without having numerical superiority the Alliance fleet had still won the engagement quickly and with a surprisingly small number of casualties, two cruisers one of which looked like it could be repaired and five frigates that had either been right in front of the enemy fleet or were destroyed by the combined fire of the fleets ship defenses when they got close up, something which no council race ever did. The Asari watched as their comparatively tiny vessel was towed through the fleet. As they drew closer to the central ship the crew let out a gasp at its size

"It's like flying over the Destiny Ascension" said Laranth. "And they just have three of them sitting in the middle of their formation like its normal"

"Maybe it is normal for them." Said one of the crewmembers in a worried tone. If their ships of the line were the size of the Destiny Ascension, then, she wondered what would their dreadnaughts look like?

"Yes and they are taking the scenic route showing us their nice big guns" replied the matriarch as she watched the tall spires quickly pass by under them. The entire bridge crew watched as the large ship went by as the tug slowly worked its way to the middle of the ship. Once there it made a lazy ninety degree turn and headed to the side of the ship letting them glimpse the guns up close before plunging down.

The tug dipped under the side of the ship and turning on its axis it lined up with the massive maw of the bottom hanger. The matriarch watched as the maw drew closer and the protective barrier keeping space out and air in pass over her. She looked at the large bay capable of holding a number of smaller craft along with a frigate or two, all the while trying to find a way to convince these people to join the citadel council or at least ally themselves with the Asari Republics.

Getting directions over the com the crew was quick to shut down the ship as the matriarch along with Laranth and Arieth made their way through the ship and down to the boarding ramp. Awaiting the matriarch at the bottom of the ramp was six of her most trusted commandos.

Getting into position around the matriarch one of the commandos hit a button on her Omni tool and lowered the boarding ramp. Walking out of the ship they were greeted by an entire company of troops in white and blue body armor with a half visor helmet flanking each side of the path. Acting as one the entire company stood straight up and lifted their guns to their chest in salute.

Looking down the formation the matriarch almost tripped in surprise at what was waiting for them at the end. As they got closer she could make out more and more about the beings. The most astonishing part was that they looked just like Asari. Except for the skin tone, hair on their heads, and the fact that there were two males standing beside the woman in the strange brown robes.

Once the Asari delegation met the humans both groups just stared at each other for a moment surprised and excited at meeting a race so much like their own. To the humans who for eons had been wondering what was out there, and for a hundred years if anything was friendly this was like hitting the jackpot.

Most of the Asari were thinking the same thing. Though they had been allied with the Turians and Salarians for over a thousand years the two species were still vastly alien. But here stood a species that outside of a few cosmetic differences seemed very similar. A similarity that would hopefully make forming an alliance easier. Well easier for the politicians, the crew on both sides of the introduction were having much different thoughts about their shared biology.

Though to matriarch Benezia it was a jackpot for different reasons, the new tech these people had used to destroy the Batarian fleet was amazing. For a while her and Aethyta had believed that their tech had stagnated and that the Asari Republics should branch out and not rely so much on eezo, and this race offered the chance. A second reason was that no matter how strong and how loyal the Turians were there just was never enough ships to deal with the Batarians, especially with how they had been acting up lately. But she figured, if she could get this new race with their large starships to join them, then they would have enough people to patrol their borders and deal with the Batarians at the same time.

Coming out of her thoughts as she walked towards the waiting figures she stopped and gave a short bow that was quickly returned. "Greetings I am Matriarch Benezia T'Soni of the Asari Republics. I would like to thank you and your people for your against the Batarian pirates."

"Thank you and on behalf of the Galactic Alliance I would like to welcome you to our ship." Said a tall man with dark skin and graying brown hair. "I am Admiral Corso Williams, the woman to my left is Jedi Knight Hannah Sheppard and the man to her left is Skirata Vau leader of our detachment of Mandalorian Raiders.

The matriarch was listening intently to what the man said though some words did not translate like this mando and jeed'ii. The two people were dressed differently than the others with the man wearing a heavy looking pair of armor and the red haired woman wearing a set of brown robes. She wondered if they were members of the military and if not, what were their duties.

"It is nice to meet you admiral, and as I said my name is Matriarch Benezia and the Asari to my right is my captain Laranth, and to my left is my comm officer Lt Arieth. May I ask how it was that you were able to translate our language so quickly?" she asked.

"If you don't mind I will explain as we walk" Said the admiral leading the group out of the bay and into one of the many large corridors that lined the ship. The inside of the ship was very metallic, with a lived in and well used look as well as some aftermarket touches the crew had added to make the ship less sterile.

"The best way to explain it would actually be to go back several hundred years and tell you how we got here." The admiral said leading them around a maze of corners until ushering them into what looked like a large conference room. In the center of the room was a long oval table with some sort of holoprojector in the middle displaying a set of wings with a sword sticking up from between them.

Motioning for everyone to take a seat the Admiral typed a few commands into the screen on the holoprojector, after a second a solar system popped up showing a yellow sun with nine planets circling it. Zooming in the hologram stopped at the third planet from the sun, a small blue orb with a single moon orbiting it.

"300 years ago in 1947 our planets two superpowers, the United States of America and the United Soviet Socialist Republic were in a space race to see who could land a man on the moon first." As the male spoke matriarch Benezia was trying to make sense of what was he was saying. Apparently in 300 years they had unified their people and achieved interstellar flight. The Salarians were the first to achieve space flight but it had still taking them far longer to make it from there home system to other worlds.

"The United States was the first power to make it to the moon, but upon their arrival they found something more than moon rocks and space dust." Now the hologram was showing a black and white recording. Astronauts in bulky suits were pointing towards a long curved craft that was half buried in the lunar soil. Its organic curves making Benezia think of the smaller frigates that had been hovering around the carrier in the rear of the fleet. "Long ago a species from another galaxy that looked exactly like our selves had set out to see if life existed outside their own galaxy."

"Other galaxies? But that sounds like something out of science fiction" Said the matriarch, did they really expect them to believe that an extragalactic species came to the planet and what integrated with them?

" That is exactly what our own people thought. But along with the history they also left us their technology and designs on how to use it once we got advanced enough to read them." Said the Admiral taking no offence at the Matriarchs words. Though he did find her calling it science fiction funny seeing as how she was currently sitting inside an alien vessel talking to aliens that looked close enough to be distant cousins.

" So that must be why we did not detect any element zero in your ships, you all went down a different tech path." Said Laranth speaking up. She was interested in the new tech and wanted nothing more than to take a very long tour of their engine room.

"That is one of the reasons, the second I will get into a moment. Anyways to not let the secret spill out too soon we contacted a filmmaker and encouraged him to create a universe based on the history and technology of the ship we found. The man's name was George Lucas and in 1976 he released his first movie titled Star Wars, one of the most popular franchises in our space with over 30 movies in its main series along with television shows and countless novels and games."

Hearing about this filmmaker the matriarch couldn't help but think about it the Asari's own dirty little secret below the temple of the goddess on their home world. As the matriarch listened to the man she didn't notice the heavy lidded gaze of the woman sitting at an angle from her or the prickling of her mind as another brushed against it.

Hanna found the emotions of the alien slightly hard to read, she was still able to pick up a number of different ones but she wasn't sure if her problems were due to an alien consciousness or if the woman had some sort of practice blocking mental probes. Brushing deeper past the surface thoughts Hannah let out a gasp and physically pulled back away from the woman. The blue skinned woman was hundreds of years old and Hannah had about gotten lost in the sea of memories. Skirata put his hand on his friend's arm and gave her a questioning glance but Hannah just shook her head saying not to worry before getting a large glass of water and downing it.

" Over the next 50 years we slowly released the technology into our planet jumping our knowledge of physics and the universe ahead by a hundred years. Then in 2027 we made a discovery that shook our entire world and made us decide to reveal parts of the history to the public"

" What was that?" asked Benezia wondering if they had been attacked by some unknown species or if like themselves they had discovered a prothean bacon."

"I must ask what does your species know of the Protheans?" asked Hanna. Benezia let out a mental sigh, thankfully these people had most likely discovered some beacon and not some dangerous new aliens.

"We know they had a galaxy spanning empire centered around the mass relay and element zero technology, and that they disappeared around 10,000 years ago" Said the Matriarch repeating what every child was taught in elementary school.

"That is similar to what we found." said Hanna before bringing up another image on the hologram projector. "It took us four years to get into the computer archives because of how damaged it was but thankfully it was profoundly user friendly. Almost as if it had been meant to be read by whoever found it. The first thing we saw was this warning." Suddenly the new image started, it showed a grainy image of an unknown alien ship coming out of a mass relay and destroying the ships guarding the relay before moving on to the planet. " Goddess what was that" Asked the Asari captain.

"We are not sure, the only thing we have discovered about them is that they are behind the mass relays. According to the computer they use the mass relays to force races down a certain path before they destroy them for some unknown reason."

Before Benezia could object to how crazy that sounded the man in the heavy armor spoke up "Something that always confused the Alliance was why there were so few relays because for every one they found they would find five or six more habitable solar systems just a couple hours hyperspace jumps away"

As Benezia listened she remembered some of the things Liara had said about the Protheans, she would have to get back in touch with her daughter and see what they could find in their own computer. "That seems hard to believe, we have always been taught that the Protheans created the relays, we know there were others before them but we have never gotten records of these invaders."

"We understand that this is a lot to take in and that its slightly unbelievable, but we will share all the information we have gained on them " said Hannah Shepherd, what she didn't tell them was that part of their mission was to spread the warning in hopes of finding a way to beat them should they ever come back.

Moving back to the hologram projector the Admiral pressed a button causing the picture of Earth to pull back and show the image of the galaxy. Slowly eight red rings spread out from Earth's solar system before expanding exponentially and covering a large sector of space. "After the information was released it was quickly decided we needed to spread out and build colonies and ships. To date we have nearly 800 colonies spread throughout our space " although the Admiral neglected to say that many of those planets were simply mines or farming communities.

Looking at the size and scope of the Alliance space the matriarch noticed something she could make use of. "Wow I am surprised you haven't ran into the Turians or Batarians yet admiral." said the matriarch

" The who? I recognized the Batarians but I have never heard of a Turian" The Admiral worried that their borders could be right up against two unfriendly alien nations.

" Is there a way I could highlight certain areas on your galaxy map?" asked Benezia, she was quickly given a data pad and stylus and shown how to outline and highlight on it with the information being transferred to the large projection. Taking both she quickly went about outlining and highlighting the major powers in the universe.

" As you can see the galaxy is composed of many different states, the most of them fall under the authority of the Citadel Council " Said Benezia a pointing to the large blue sectors of space.

" What are those two big ones right beside our systems?" Asked Skirata memorizing the primitive galactic map in case they needed it later.

"The greenish blue one is turian space. The Turians are one of the ruling races of the Citadel and make up the large part of our defensive line. The yellow territory belongs to the Batarians, a race whose entire cast system revolves around piracy and slavery, " said the Matriarch earning quizzical and slightly harsh stares from the humans.

" How is it that you would allow a society that uses slaves continue? Especially if they attack and take your own people?" Asked Hannah, slavery and the entire colonial mindset was despised in Alliance sectors as everyone swore not to make the mistake of the Age of Imperialism ever again.

"I can understand your feelings but there is not much we can do at the moment. The Batarian's Empire rivals the Turian's in size but I want you to look at this sector space " Benezia said pointing at a purple colored sector. "This is the terminus sector and at one third the size of the entire Citadel space is full of pirates and warlords. We could choose to take either them or the Batarians out but the losses would be devastating and allow the other to invade us"

'Though if we had your men and ships to fight with the Batarian fleet we could be rid of those pests and not be weakened to badly' Thought the matriarch.

Both groups were broken out of their thoughts by a beeping from Hannah's comlink. Quickly talking into the commlink for a minute Hanna turned to the Admiral. "Sir Andy just picked up a distress beacon from the Batarian ships. He hasn't been able to translate it but it's his guess that it won't be long before reinforcements show up."

This caused the Admiral's frown to deepen. The majority of the ships had self-destructed after the main portion of the fleet had retreated so he figured the enemy would have been scared off. But with this new information about their size as well as the beacon he started to think that his fleet would have less time than he would like to get out of the system. "I think we should we retreat to Shanxi for the time being. That way we can begin repairs on the Asari craft and the damaged ships can hide in the moon's shadow if necessary." said the Admiral getting up and excusing himself before leaving the room barking orders into his own commlink.

Seeing that the meeting was over Skirata stood up and flashed the Asari his best lady killer smile. "Well since it will be a couple hours until we reach Shanxi how about we go to one of the mess halls and find something to eat?"

"That sounds like a pleasant idea Major. It will allow us to get to know each other in a more informal setting" replied the Matriarch standing up from her seat. Hanna did the same while trying to smother a grin. She knew that currently her brother was focused less on diplomacy and more on personal relations with the Asari pilot. She also couldn't shake the sense of otherness that came from dipping into the alien woman's mind.

The group quickly made its way to the mess hall, the stares of the men and women of the crew followed the Asari as they walked through the ship. "I was wondering, when the Admiral introduced you to there was some words that did not translate, what is a Mandalorian and a Jedi" asked the pilot walking behind the major.

Hannah was quick to answer knowing that if she let Skirata start on how awesome the Mandalorians where he wouldn't shut up for hours. "In the historical documents from the ship the two most talked-about organizations where the Jedi Knights and the Mandalorian Clans. Using unique powers and weapons the Jedi Knights acted as the diplomats and guardians of the galaxy. The Mandalorian clans on the other hand were warriors who believed in gaining honor through warfare, and using powerful armor and ships they would constantly seek out new people to fight"

"But today our own version of the Mandalorian clans fight as our special forces and Shock Troopers, we were even given our own ships to use. "Said Major Vau breaking into the conversation. Benezia wondered what they meant by unique abilities but shrugged it off as not important for now.

The trip to Shanxi went by quickly as each side went about asking the other questions. The humans were amazed to discover the long lifespan of the Asari and the Krogan they mentioned. Thanks to a cybernetics or the force humans could live between 150 and 200 years, though the natural lifespan still topped out at 120.

They were also amazed at the idea of Hyperspace, that the swirling blue tunnel outside their ship was another dimension and that they could transverse great distances without a mass effect relay in nearly the same time. Though the conversation sounded open both sides always made sure to listen to what wasn't being said and what was said to steer the conversation away from sensitive matters. As they neared their Hyperspace exit the group was invited up to the bridge so the matriarch could have a view of the Alliances newest colony.

-Relay 314-

The construction ships and escorts we're just finishing up attaching themselves to the wounded Alliance vessels and the more intact portions of the Batarian ships. As they got ready to head out of system the relay began to spin up once again and a squadron of ships lept from the relay into the middle of what was now a small graveyard of ships. Upon seeing the ship's towing the wreckage of the downed ships the mysterious ships opened fire trying to cripple the escaping vessels. Shells catapulted by powerful mass effect fields shot out towards the fleeing ships, the shots reaching their position seconds after the transports had slipped away to hyperspace.

But one of the unavoidable side effects of hyperspace travel is the coranu radiation that seeps out from hyperspace when a ship enters or exits. The powerful scanners of the alien ships quickly picked up this exotic radiation. And though they didn't know what it was they could tell it was connected with the fleeing ships and their escape. Coranu radiation acts like a timer and an hourglass, by studying the degradation of the atoms you could tell how long ago they ship had passed through the area. This was unknown to the captain of the ships, and of little use because they already knew the time. They just needed the direction. When a ship leaves or enters hyperspace they leave a trail pointing towards where they went or came from. Taking the direction of the radiation as a clue the ship read the relays computer for any planets in that direction, only one name came up, PX2-745 commonly known to the humans as Shanxi


	2. Chapter 2

-May 2157, Skyllian Verge, Shanxi. Alliance Destroyer _Far Ranger_ -

The fleet dropped out of hyperspace on the edge of Shanxi's mass shadow, the gravitonic shadow that all planets produced and which could pull unsuspecting starships from Hyperspace. Laranth the Asari captain whistled as she saw what was waiting for them.

"That is a Golan II space defence platform." Said Skirata pointing out the window to the large oval station floating in front of the ship guarding the one and only entrance to the system both by hyperspace and by the relay. "Each one of them has as many weapons and fighters as one of our cruisers"

Past the Golan space station they could see a brilliant blue and green planet in front of them. Its space lanes filled with ships going from the planet to one of the two orbiting space stations or angling away towards the outer reaches of the system.

Getting conformation of the acceptance of their ID Admiral Williams ordered the ships to quickly make their way towards the planet before turning to address the Asari. "Shanxi should have the required material to help your ship. If not we can send off to Ord Mantel for parts."

"Ord Mantell? what's that a planet?" Asked Benezia, the fact that they were easily divulging all they had meant that it was probably common knowledge to Alliance citizens but it wouldn't hurt to know anyway.

"Ord stands for ordinance repository depot, it's a planet specifically for holding ships, units, and materials. I'm going to send our more damaged ships back there but I think we can fit your ship into one of the space docks here."

Over the next few days Alliance engineers alongside the Asari mechanics worked to repair the ships. As the asari used a different form of technology the engineers had to look for a workaround or create completely new devices. The ideas that the asari and human engineers came up with excited and impressed both the matriarch and the admiral. Every workaround, invention, and integration of technology was documented by Alliance technicians. Onboard the orbital dock the lunchroom was abuzz with scientists and engineers sketching out new ideas on napkins. The matriarch listened with surprise at the extent the Alliance was willing to go to help them, even upgrading the Sofia's tech to be more on their level. Little did she know that the alliance was using the ship as a test bed for Operation Clipeus.

Though that was not the only interesting thing she discovered. Benezia had been on her way to exercise at one of the gyms on station when she passed a hall where Hannah was busy sparring with two of the asari commandos. Benezia watched patiently as hannah fought her commandos, the woman seemed to dance around them as if they were stationary. Leaping, twirling, pivoting and never letting the asari tag her with a fist. Watching the match Benezia noticed the anger start to appear on Ashala's face, the girl has always been most hot headed and proud of her skills and not being able to hit shepherd was starting to annoy her. Angry at thee redhead human Ashala let her biotics flare up her body and wrap it in a dark blue glow as she readied her attack.

Rushing from the side Ashala sent a powerful biotic throw at hannah that took the woman by surprise and threw her across the room. The matriarch was about to step in until she saw the smile that had appeared on the red headed woman's face. "Oh I see you have some tricks of your own. This is going to be fun, watch closely or you might miss me" said Hannah has she drew the force around herself. Hannah shot forward in what appeared to be a biotic charge, the Asari barely able to track her movements as she closed the 10 meters between them. Combining the speed of her punch with the strength of her force abilities Hannah buried her fist in her the girls gut causing the woman to fly backwards. Seeing her partner being attacked the other asari stepped in to help only to find herself lifted up in the air and thrown towards one of the mats on the wall.

The Matriarch watched pride aside as the battle intensified, balls of biotic energy shot through the air only for Hannah to dodge and retaliate with her own powers. As the fight started to drag own Hannah began to tire. Though the force gave her great stamina and energy she was still starting to feel the effects her pregnancy had left on her body. Knowing it was time to end the training but also that she could not use anything to harmful or damaging she slipped into a Tersi Kasi stance and watched as the two Asari slowly approached. Tersi Kasi had been invented with the sole purpose of fighting force users and Hannah figured it should work of the Asari. The form was composed of fast closely ranged combos and attacks meant to deny the enemy the time or focus to use the force. Taking the force in her hands Hannah used it in an attack to immobilize whatever limb she hit.

In less than a minute both women were laying on the ground as they slowly regained full use of their limbs. Walking over to where Hannah was the Matriarch watched as the girl used her powers to call a towel down from one of the benches and wipe the sweat off of her face. " So would that be a demonstration of the unique powers you Jedi poses?"

Hannah smiled at the Matriarch trying to balance pride with humility. "A small one yes. There are many different ways one can use the Force and only a small part is for combat. What interests me is the attacks your commandos used, they were similar to a number of different force techniques yet I didn't feel either one of them drawing on the force " Hannah said watching the two commandos pick each other up off the floor with wobbly legs.

" What my commandos use is called biotics it's the ability to control dark matter that comes from exposure to element zero. Strangely, only a small percentage of people in most species become biotics but every Asari is a natural born biotic." said the matriarch

" Maybe my people were not the only ones who were visited a long time ago, seems like someone wanted to create a powerful warrior race." said Hannah her mind going off on a tangent following the hills and valleys until a thought crossed her mind. " Maybe it was the Protheans, they could have wanted to use you against the enemy or at least give you a fighting chance"

'Powerful, industrious, and intelligent. Fuck' The Matriarch's surprise that Hannah had quickly come to a conclusion it had taken the asari a long time to admit to was noticeable in the force "What makes you say that?" She asked, wondering if those abilities of hers could let her read minds.

"Because." Hannah said in a serious tone "It's what we would do".

Benezia was slightly started by that comment. Even the Salarians were not as forthcoming about their plans to uplift or interfere with other civilizations. " you mentioned this force before, how many of your people can access it" Benezia said trying to change the subject.

" We think it is around 25 percent but only 10 to 15 percent ever get trained as a Jedi. The other 10 percent either aren't strong enough to become a Jedi or would rather do something else" Hannah slung the towel over her shoulder and started to lead the way outside.

"But isn't it dangerous having people who cannot control their powers running around?" Benezia asked as they crossed over a few mats and around a number of boxing bags "In Asari space everybody is given training in school so they don't accidentally hurt anyone" As Hannah and Benezia talked Admiral Corso was having a conversation as well with the president of the collective Alliance Nations. "It's astounding, you didn't even leave the system yet and discovered to alien species and learned that an entire society of half a dozen species exist out there." The president said, the hologram showing the pure amazement and excitement such news had brought him. It wasn't even that it was an election year or that he would be going down as the first president to make contact with aliens. It was the sheer joy of a person finding out about relatives they didn't even know they had.

"I know sir, my men are amazed by the asari, to think we would find a species so much like ourselves. But what worries me are these Batarians " said the Admiral frowning at the loss of life his fleet suffered from the attack.

" I and the Joint Chiefs agree with you, that is why we are sending part of the fourth fleet and Grand Master Alinco out there to start diplomatic relations and see what we can learn about those Batarians."

While the GrandMaster and the Home Fleet were each well respected amongst the navy and civilian population Corso's mind was on where his fleet would fit in. Exploration and diplomacy were to be their job. And even if they hadn't left Alliance space yet he didn't see why his fleet should lose that privilege. "Thank you sir but what does this mean for my fleet?" he asked

" For now you are to remain at Shanxi, Once the Grandmaster arrives with his flagship you will escort the asari to the Citadel so we can begin the talks with them. By the time you arrive the Maw Installation should have some working ideas for Operation Clipeusthey can send you"

Light years away the mysterious alien fleet was preparing to make the jump into Shanxi space. The fleet believing that the small ships that had jumped out comprised the pirates entire fleet were confident that their small squadron ships could handle it. The ships in question, having made it back after the first day, had reported the group of unknown hostiles. Though the Admiral thought the chances of Shanxi being discovered was small he had still put his units on yellow alert and sent some of the smaller ships out to the edges of the system to scout. This plan left the Golan II undefended at the relay but the Admiral was confident that if attacked the fleet could respond in time.

By sheer luck the roving patrol ships were at the farthest distance from the relay and the golan defense station when the relay activated and spat out a dozen alien ships. " Attention unknown vessels this is the Galactic Alliance Golan space station. You are now entering Alliance space, declare your intent or be fired upon." Came the message in both English and Asari, thanks to the Asari they were able to use a file from the asari ship itself instead of the proto-asari dialect their computers had constructed. Facing their shields towards the enemy and preparing for battle the space station awaited the aliens reply. While watching the alien ships with every manner of scanner available to them including the good old eyeball mark 1 they sent out a message on the hyperspace communicator telling the closest ships to get bac now. They had also tried contacting the Admiral and Matriarch, though both were out of touch at the moment and it would take a while for security to track them down.

About a minute passed before they heard the gravelly response of the alien ships captain. " This is Commander Ducceluss in command of the Turian 4th patrol group to the pirates that attacked an Asari Diplomatic shuttle. I am giving you one chance to surrender and face punishment before I open fire." Said the captain ordering his ship to fire a warning shot at the station. The shots struck the shields causing it to flair but do little harm.

From the beginning of space flights shield had been made to keep rocks from tearing holes in a ship. And on a station where the generators it didn't have to spread their power between engines, shields, and weapons the shot posed little threat by itself. "Captain we are not pirates, our ship encountered the matriarch fleeing from a batarian fleet. We defended ourselves and protected the Matriarch from the fleet, we then escorted her back here and are in the process of repairing the ship." said the officer wishing that they would hurry up and find the Admiral.

"Sir," Said a young tan faced com officer who had only recently graduated from the academy "They said they were Turian. According to the briefing those guys are the Council's space police. Destroying those ships may be a very bad idea"

Jonas, the command duty officer of the watch waffled between praising the young ensign for reading his briefing material or scolding him for telling him something he already knew. With the Admiral out of contact and time quickly slipping away to wherever it goes during stressful situations Jonas wished the fleet had shown up just a few hours later when this wouldn't be his issue anymore.

"Right we can't shoot 'em" He said looking at the enlarged ships on the viewscreen. "And even if we could their are to many of them and only one of us. We could win but I'm not sure what would be left of us after a slugging match." Turning to his crew he took the time to look at each and every face before asking for suggestions.

"Sir I may have a suggestion." The chief tractor beam operator said. "We can use our tractor beams to pull their guns out of line with the station. The Asari had never encountered the technology before and since all of Citadel space seems to be working off the same blueprints I would doubt the Turians have either."

"Wonderful plan but we only have thirteen emitters to their dozen ships. And it would take at least two or three to move those larger looking ones." Jonas said, not really arguing against the plan but trying to work out the kinks to it.

The tractor beam operator smiled and continued on as if he hadn't interrupted her. "While the ships are fighting against the emitters we can have out B-wings fly out and start hitting the ships with their ion cannons."

This time it was the gunnery sergeants turn to speak up. "Kinetic bombardment weapons are relatively low tech. There is a chance that the B-wings ion cannons don't affect them. Especially with the size difference. It might be best to have them attack the engines instead. It would be easy enough to spin them around once their thrusters are offline."

Jonas looked at the clock and saw that their time was up. Even the quickest fighters were a half minute out and the larger ships would take a few minutes to arrange themselves for a fleet this size and jump their way. "Ok people you heard the plan. Relay orders to the fighters and divert are non-necessary power to the shields and tractor beams."

Onboard the Turian dreadnought the Commander watched the timer tick down with all the attention of his raptor ancestors. He was only a year away from promotion and he was sure that bagging another pirate group and saving some soft Matriarch who had gotten herself captured would push him even further up the rungs towards an Admiralship.

"Time is up. Move all ships into a firing line and give the command to fire as soon as their cannons are spun up." The Commander stared up at the large space station. While two and a half times the size of his dreadnaught the lack of element zero or any sort of mass effect fields gave him a sense of confidence and invulnerability. On a more intelligent commander the fact that the pirate ships had used some unknown form of ftl may have clued him into the station also having non-traditional defenses.

The commander was already pinning another ribbon on his chest as warning klaxons started to go off and his ship lurched to the side. "Stations, what is that? What hit us?" he barked as he held himself tightly to his command chair.

"We don't know sir. There are no reported impacts to the ship and the shield hasn't registered anything. We've all of a sudden started listing to the side." A technician said from the crew pit in front of him. "And it's not just us. The Graviton and Tinitus are also reporting that they are being pulled out of firing line with the station."

"How is that possible?" Commander Duccelus demanded. "What sort of magic are they using to do this?"

"Not magic sir but science fiction." A tech said with equal parts fear and amazement "A strong gravatonic beam is being emitted from different points on the station and latching onto the ship allowing them to push and pull us in different directions."

"Well have the smaller ships target the emitters and fire on them. The sooner we can get the big guns aimed at the station the sooner we can move past it and deal with the pirates." In his rage the Commander forgot the two most important facts about space defenses. The first being that one could simply just go around them if their were no reinforcements. And the second being that a space defense platform was created to stall until those reinforcements could arrive. Suddenly the lights dimmed on the bridge and the forward viewport was filled with a blinding white light that seemed to sputter and spread through the walls and over the consoles causing small explosions and electrical fires all over the bridge. "What in the hells was that?" he bellowed as his own chair shocked his arm.

"I can't say for certain sir but I think it may have been some sort of directed ionic weapon" at the commanders obvious lack of understanding the tech continued on. "Basically they shot a big ball of electricity at us and fried all of our components. The bridge is out sir."

Though not the fastest on the uptake it didn't take long for the military implications of such a weapon to flash though his mind. A weapon like that could disable a ship with no damage to its hull or weapons. Then those strange gravitonic beams of theirs could reel in a ship allowing their boarding parties to clear it from the inside out like a swarm of turian blood carvers. "All ships full reverse. Maintain fire on those gravity emplacements and start backing away at full power". Outside the window he could see webs of blue energy wash over the engines and bridge of his only other dreadnaught. Instead of being pulled into the station he found the dreadnaught and his own ship being pushed between the station and his own fleet. Meaning that at least his fleet would have to spend a few minutes moving to a new firing angle to not hit their impared comrades.

As his ships started to maneuver out of the way the sensors started to blair with additional contacts. A dozen more fighters of unknown make and three slightly avian ships seemed to appear from nowhere above the station. In the middle of this small flotilla was the refurbished Sofia Fas, her hull returned to the showroom gleam it had sported before the attack. Though it now held a few new aftermarket additions.

"Hah so they have come to bargain." Duccelus barked, all of a sudden forgetting what was being done to his fleet with just one station and a dozen small craft. "Their shields must be on their last legs and they decided to give up their prize." Duccelus was about to bark out an order for his ships to target the three large vessels when the comboard lit up with an incoming message.

"Commander this is Matriarch Benezia aboard the starbase Axial III relaying my message though the Sofia Fos. I am ordering you to halt your attack on the space station and await for one of my officers to come aboard and explain the situation to you."

Duccelus bristled at having a Matriarch give him orders. In his eyes the Asari acted to much like they ran the council and not like a part of it. Plus why would she be relaying her message though the Sofia and not be aboard it. The pirates must be trying another trick to keep their prize. "It's a trap. They are probably expecting us to take that ship abroad and then blow it up, or use it as a way for their boarding party to take over our hanger." Duccelus turned towards the comms officer " Have all non immobilized ships change targets and fire at the three new contacts."

Despite some hesitation from the younger and more cosmopolitan of the turian officers all ships started to rotate the noses of their ships up towards the three Majestic class cruisers that flanked the Sofia Fos. Before the ships could finish their rotations each of the three cruisers twenty ion cannons sent wave after wave of ionized energy splashing against their hulls. The energy not having enough mass to be affected by the ships shields impacted the bridges and main weapons of the smaller frigates and cruisers leaving them defenseless as the numerous B and K wings systematically took out their engines.

In a quarter of an hour a squadron of Turian ships had been disabled without a single loss of life on either side and without any damage to the invading fleet. By the time the Turian ships had been able to restore power to their downed systems the rest of Admiral Corso's fifth fleet had formed up around the defense platform and the Sofia Fos had docked with the Graviton.

Duccelus now eyed the three armored figures that stood beside the Asari commandos. Each one wore some sort of metallic body suit that had been painted in personalized colours and designs. The apparent leader of the warriors, a man named Major Vau, stood next to the leader of the Asari Commandos and listened patiently as the captain of the Sofia Fos used the long range transmitters on the Graviton to try and contact the Citadel. Many of the younger members of the crew couldn't help but stare at the aliens. They were nothing like the insectoid rachnai or the monstrous krogan. They seemed to be molded from the same soft frame that the Asari were. Though these aliens at least tried to make up for their lack of bone plates with strong looking armor. Still to the Turians their was little difference in the two species other than colour and the strange fluff on top of their heads.

Still Duccelus was weary of these newcomers and the way they had taken out his fleet. Even the way the Asari seemed to be already at ease around them worried him. As soon as was possible he was going to send a report back to the Hierarchy and make sure that his people were aware of what had happened here.

As the two fleets floated around the defense platform the relay started to spin up for only the second time since the discovery of the system. Out of the relay came wave after wave of Batarian ships. Dozens upon dozens of frigates and cruisers surrounding five large dreadnaughts. The fleet dwarfed not only the one the Sofia Fos had fled from but even the upper projection of what the Citadel thought the Batarians were capable of.

"Either the Salarian STG has been getting bad intel or they must have pulled away half of their entire navy just for this fight." Laranth said looking over at Commander Vau as they stood on the bridge of the Pearl Harbor. "You guys must have really pissed them off"

"So numbers like this aren't normal in your space?" Vau started to pull his helmet over his head. The reassuring glow of the heads up display overlaying the visors image.

"No, in fact that was something the Matriarch was going to talk to your Admiral about. We have a treaty that limits the number of ships for different classes that each member can have." Laranth was puzzled by the sight in front of her. But despite being outnumbered by a large number she didn't feel the usual fear that came with impending combat.

"Is there any chance that they could have been building this fleet in secret?" Vau switched from his speakers to internal suit com for a moment to order his company into their shuttles as Laranth thought it over.

"Possibly. But even if those things are just flying death traps with the minimal amount of materials necessary to build it I don't know where they would have gotten enough Element Zero to power them all. Let alone build them this quickly."

"How would you like a chance to fly one my companies shuttles?" Vau smiled behind his helmet even though no one could see it. "We didn't get a chance to study any of their ships after they all self destructed and with what you just told me it seems like it would be a really good idea to take one of those ships intact and study it. Maybe even some of the crew."

The tone of his voice slightly creeped Laranth out and she all of a sudden pictured a batarian captive spread out on an exam table. The humans were most likely going to be learning about Batarian biology in a much different way than they had been learning about Asari biology in the past two weeks. Still it wasn't any different than the way some of the Salarians she had worked with talked. And goddess knew the Batarians probably deserved every moment of it.

"Well it's not a fighter but I'm sure it will beat cruising around in the Matriarchs yacht for a while" Laranth and Major Vau headed down towards the large open hangers of the Pearl even as Vau relayed his plans and reasoning to the Admiral. The Admiral quickly greenlit the operation and selected a suitable target for the raiders. One of the small cruisers at the center of the outside formation. It seemed important enough to hold crucial data in its memory banks while still being small enough for the one hundred and thirty mandalorian raiders to be able to handle themselves.

"Andy give me tactical on the center holo display" A large holographic sphere appeared above the table in front of the admiral. The bright colours and 3d models always made it look more like a game board than a life and death struggle. But the twenty two cruisers, thirty three corvettes, fifty frigates and five dreadnaughts were not just an AI from a video game. Even with what they had learned from the previous two battles with the Batarians and the Turians Andy was giving a very slim chance of his 14 ships being able to pull out a win.

"Sir," A computerized voice said. "I do not predict a successful engagement if we stand and fight. I would also like to add that while the defense of the Alamo was a noble goal I do not wish to go down in history for repeating that sort of last stand."

"Neither do I Andy." Admiral Williams took his time looking over the forces available to him. He still had a few minutes before the large fleet would be able to move itself into an attack position. and it was better to take that time to iron out his strengths and weaknesses than it was to rush in headlong. So far the most apparent strengths of his forces were their speed, firing arc, maneuverability, and that the Batarian shields couldn't stop their weapons. However the Batarians still had number, a longer distance they could fire at, and again the numbers.

Though numbers didn't mean anything if they couldn't catch the fleet. "Ok guys here is what we are going to do. Have the pickets escort the Sofia Fos back to the starbase. Neither of them are going to be doing any good here. Then I need our cruisers and frigates to split themselves between our destroyers. We are going to retreat in a triple helix formation back towards the inner portion of the system. Were going to need to stay just in front of the Batarians so that the destroyers and cruisers can fire back at them when they are crossing in front of them."

"Sir what about the Gollan II? They are requesting orders" A com officer asked as the crew listened to the panicked toned of the Gollan II's crew over the mic.

"That is where the Turian Fleet hopefully comes in." Williams turned towards the Matriarch and blushed slightly. "I hate to ask for favors so early in our relationship but I could really use your help with this part." He said with a grin.

"I suppose in the service of greater cooperation between our states in the future I could assist you." The Matriarch said. She was enjoying the way these Humans reacted to danger. Most like the Turians except without the stick up their azure sector. "I suppose you are going to want to use the tractor beams to let the Turians pull the station behind them?" With great age came great wisdom and she had spent enough time with her husband to be able to think like a warrior.

"Usually it would be ships tractoring onto the station and pulling it but the stations tractor beams should be strong enough for this to work. And it will give our fighters and bombers a good place to rearm as they defend the station and harry the enemy." The hardest part of the plan wasn't having the Turian ships pull the station but convincing its commanding officer that this was a better plan than standing their ground and fighting. Reluctantly he had agreed to do it as long as they would be allowed to engage the enemy once they had made it back to Shanxi.

For Major Vau and his raiders this plan required a slight change to their mission. "You know," Laranth said calmly even as she dodged between streams of bullets from a railgun emplacement. "I've never gotten the chance to drive a cruiser before. A frigate once but never something that big" Laranth sent the ship into another spin, practically turning it straight up on its tail to let a stream of accelerated metal shoot below them.

"Well I'm glad I can give you another first" Vau said smirking from inside his helmet.

"It will be the last first you give me if those fighters don't take out those gun emplacements so I can land this thing." Laranth put the ship into a final dive as the twin rail gun emplacements that had been tracking her exploded in giant balls of flame from a pair of proton torpedos. "Ok now we can land. I hope you don't mind if I stay in the shuttle until you and your guys secure the bridge."

"Well it doesn't look like we are going to be able to make a quick escape if we need to so I would sit tight" Vau said as the five shuttles squeezed into a small hanger that was made to fit maybe three of them at the most, four if they didn't mind scraping the paint. "Ok people, buckets on and remember to keep the fire lanes clear. We are going to be making splitting up into two groups. One going for the engines and the other to secure the bridge. Fast and clean and remember that this is going to be our ride out of here." A few shouts of acknowledgement met the command as the troopers started to dash out of the transorts and towards the hanger doors.

Outside the hanger the Mandalorian Raiders made their first major discovery of the trip. Their vaunted shock trooper armor was as good as tin plating against the riffles the Batarian marines carried. Sol, nor the Milky Way didn't have any of the beskar'gam or mandalorian iron that the holologs on the crashed ship had talked about. Instead they were made of the strongest polymer that they could create, a polymer that had been created to withstand traditional slug throwers and plasma weapons. Mass Effect rounds weren't impeded at all by the armor. Though luckily for them the Batarians armor was equally ineffective against their blaster rifles. The wounded soldiers were brought back to the hanger bay and laid down on the deck for the medics to deal with as the raiders switched tactics. Lateral entry into rooms in concert with smoke and emp grenades allowed the raiders to flank and take out the Batarian marines in the hallways. What was going to be a lighting raid was now turning into a much more bloody and brutal battle for control of the ship.

Outside of the Mandalorians personal battle inside the ship a larger battle was going on. The Batarian fleet continued its march in system as fighters and bombers swarmed around its flanks like gnats and long range turbolasers peppered the front of the armada. The helix pattern had been designed to allow ships to spend a minimum amount of time in the firing range of the enemy ships and giving them a long enough time outside that range to recharge their shields. However this also reduced the amount of guns they could point at the encroaching fleet and sooner or later the larger force would start to chip away at their numbers.

This concert of ships was being conducted again by Hannah Sheppard. Her web of battle meditation stretching out to all the ships in the fleet ensuring that each one spent the best amount of time firing on target as well as outside of the range of the Batarian ships recharging their shields. This time she did extend the web to the Asari and even the Turians. A fighting retreat could be done with or without the meld and she knew that the council would want a report on if it was possible. Gently touching each mind she found the Turian's to be rigid and formulaic. All hard edges and straight lines that created a cage around a strong will. They were less susceptible to her mental assurances than the Humans or Asari but with practice and their help she was sure they could be successfully integrated into a battlefield in the future. With the Asari it was the problem of flying to near a black hole. Their centuries of life experience acted almost like a black holes gravity well and she found that it would be so easy to slide down it and get lost. Instead she had to stay around the metal accretion disk of their minds. Despite that problem the Asari were much easier to deal with, their minds practically reaching out to beckon and embrace her. It wasn't the force but it was a connection that would need future study.

The Matriarch tried to stifle a yawn as they passed over Shanxi's moon. The running battle had lasted for over nine hours. Normally an incoming fleet would use the speed of a mass relay to slingshot insystem and attack a planet in a matter of minutes. But stopping at the relay and having to regroup and use their engines in system took significantly longer. Space between the relay was littered with Batarian ships and the rescue beacons of dozens of Alliance spacecraft including most of its frigates and a couple cruisers. Even the destroyers were having trouble keeping their shields up and had suffered a number of hits to their hulls and rear engines. And at this point the Gollan II was being carried just to deny any of its systems to the enemy after its turbolasers and ion canons had been wiped out.

Overall the Alliance navy had came out the better. Only losing a quarter of its fighter wing and seven ships while the Batarian navy was down to seventy five ships, only a dozen or so of which were at full strength. In fact the Batarian ships that were in the best shape were the five corvettes that was chasing Major Vau's cruiser across the other side of the solar system.

"Shanxi's planetary shield isn't up and running yet." A voice from out of the air behind her stated. It was Andy again giving the Admiral an update on the fleet position. She had yet to meet the person who seem to act as both their tactical officer and logistician for the fleet. "Its installation wasn't scheduled to be finished for another month. At least the second Golan II is up and running. They have also had time to prepare some ground to space weaponry for when the fleet gets close to it."

"A planetary what?" Benezia was pulled away from the sight of the moon and the blue planet coming over its curve to the conversation between Andy and the Admiral. "Do you mean that you have a shield that can cover an entire planet? She couldn't imagine the amount of power it would take to shield an entire planet. Or with that much power strain what good it could possibly be. But apparently these people could envelop whole planets like a cocoon.

"This one doesn't. Not yet at least. Which is a shame because if it did we could slip under its protection and wait them out indefinitely. Or at least until help showed up." Williams was about to issue another command when every warning claxon on the ship seemed to go off at once.

"Computers are detecting a massive object nearing us in hyperspace. Prepare for possible collision." a com officer said. Instead of finding something to steady himself with Admiral Williams grabbed the Matriarch and pulled her towards an observation bubble that would allow her to see all of the space around the ship.

"Come on, you are not going to want to miss this." He said as the comms officer counted down until reversion. In the space between the planet and the moon space rippled for a second before something appeared in front of them. At first she didn't know what she was looking at. It was simply to large, to massive to be any kind of ship. She wasn't sure if there was enough eezo in all of Citadel space to be able to move the long cigar shaped piece of coral that now floated in front of her. She didn't notice, or at least didn't care about the destroyers or cruisers or corvettes that appeared all around it like a shoal of fish around a whale. She didn't even care about the seventy five Batarian ships still chasing them.

All of a sudden her entire universe shrunk down to a single ship, a single instance in time filled with relief and a burning burning dread. What sort of monsters were about to be released onto the galactic stage. Beings who could wrap whole planets in protective shells of light, whose ships were not limited to the same restraints as Citadel technology and who could punch well outside their weight class, beings who could create something as large as the object in front of her and propel it from one system to another.

In an instant beautiful hypens of light started to shoot out from the ship in synchronized waves from the front to the back of it. The turbolaser bolts shooting over the fleeing Alliance ships and ripping into the Batarian navy. Each bolt seeming to turn whole sections of the ships into heated plasma. For the thousandth time that week she was glad it had been the Asari who had made first contact instead of the Batarians or even the Turians. A man like Commander Duccelus would have pulled them into a war they had no hope of winning.

The Matriarch watched in fear and wonder at the light show as the giant ship continued to reduce the Batarian ships to atoms. The smaller ships racing around the rear to ensure none of the Batarians could escape. It was less a battle than a massacre and by the time it was over the Matriarch wasn't seeing the ship anymore but two visions. One where Thessia and the other home worlds were in flame. Where these ships controlled the stars and her people were at the pleasure and mercy of this powerful force. And another were Thessia was cocooned in a web of protective light. Where the children of the humans and all Citadel races played together under the benevolent protection of such ships.

Benezia was pulled out of the vision by the Admirals voice. His face like that of a prospective suitor showing off a gift and his voice filled with well earned pride. "That is the Avalon. One of our Viscount class Star Defenders. At 17km long it has its own wing of starfighters as well as more firepower than fifty of my destroyers combined."

Benezia grabbed onto his arm to steady herself. 17Km was well over a quarter of the length of the Citadel itself. Their science said that being able to produce a ship that large and have enough energy to propel it, let alone give it shields, weapons and life support was impossible. "Just one?" She squeaked out.

"Well one of three." Williams said trying to politely maneuver her to a handrail where she could steady herself. He didn't think the ship would come as that much of a surprise to her. "The Avalon is the Flagship of the home defense fleet as well as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. Though when I say three I should clarify that the Atlantis is still eight months away from its shakedown cruise and the Shangri-La is only now having its hull fitted to its skeleton." He didn't mention that they were being built as a last ditch option in case the enemy ever showed up and was able to beat them. The Viscounts could easily house 200,000 refugees each and could work as a mobile home as they made their trip to the Andromeda Galaxy.

The fact that the ships took time to build steadied her nerves slightly. At least they couldn't make items magically appear out of thin air. But still she found herself both terribly afraid of what was to come as well as blessed to be able to witness the beginning of what could become a wonderful alliance. A part of her worried that the Asari would no longer be the top dogs in the galaxy. The Humans seemed much less willing to be led around on a leash like the Turians or distracted with intrigue and technology like the Salarians. They would not let the Asari run roughshod over the Council like they had for so long. Looking over at the Admiral she smiled and reached for his arm again.

Maybe it was time the Citadel Council was shaken up. And it was about time someone stood up to the other Matriarchs on Thessia. And if they would be forced to share power or even answer to the Galactic Alliance at some part in the future the humans seemed intelligent, industrious, and attractive enough to make it more than a bearable sacrifice for continued safety and stability.


	3. Chapter 3

It had taken over three days for the system to return to a somewhat normal state after the destruction of the Batarian fleet. The string of debris and escape pods that stretched from the moon to the mass relay was quickly cleaned up by the crews of the starbase as the captured Batarian ship along with other more salvageable vessels were escorted back to more secure bases for further study by portions of the First Fleet that had deployed with the Avalon to Shanxi. The damaged Gollan II was also pulled into a stable orbit where its undamaged components could be used as spares for what was going to be the systems only defense platform.

Admiral Williams and the rest of the his detachment of the Ninth Fleet were surprised as the Avalon and its escorts were attached to his flotilla for the time being. Normally the First Fleet or which ever ship the Grandmaster or Grand Admiral had as their flagship would take precedence. But due to the working relationship the Admiral and his fleet had already formed with the Asari and Turians the Admiral had been allowed to retain command of the group.

Currently Admiral Corso Williams along with Major Vau and Jedi Knight Sheppard were sitting at a table opposite of the Grand Master of the Jedi Order Salvo Alinco and the holographic representation of President Anthony Hayes. John Sheppard was also in attendance at the meeting though the infant was more interested in playing with his own feet in Master Alinco's lap than listening to the conversation that was currently being held by the adults.

"So far first contact has not gone the way we expected it to. Though from what you told me it may end up making Operation Clipeus much easier to roll out." President Hayes said looking down at briefing notes that were just out of pickup range of the holocom.

"Yes sir. An alliance of nations already exists in the galaxy. This citadel council seems to control major military, political, and economic decisions for its member states. Though the members states are given some sense of autonomy. It will mean that we will not have as hard a time forming alliances as we thought. And of course the obvious that their are other non hostile races out there as well." Everything the admiral was saying was contained in the report the President had in front of him but it was better that they all refreshed on the state of the galaxy before their meeting with the Matriarch. "The only problem seems to be their reliance on Element Zero as well as their aversion to machine intelligences."

"According to Laranth the Matriarch seems to think Andy is some poor ensign we have stuffed in a dark hole somewhere running calculations all day." Said Major Vau. "Also it seemed like Element Zero is hardwired into just about every piece of technology and machinery they possess. Integrating our technology wouldn't just require building things from the ground up it would require an entire shift of their world view."

"That is if this Citadel Council even has anything to do with us." Master Alinco said over the giggles of the infant in his lap. "We were apparently very lucky to rescue such an important VIP as Matriarch Benezia. So unless she is playing up her importance or just playing us in general we already have a good contact who we can use to make inroads for us."

"The Matriarch certainly has her own plans. She is a politician after all." Hannah said earning a long suffering sigh from the president. "But from what I've been able to sense of her and the way her people and even the Turians talk of her I think we all want basically the same thing. She may use this to gain more personal power or power for her people but so would we if the tables were turned."

"And what of these Turians" The President asked as he not so subtly straighten the pair of wings he always wore on his suit to signify his time in the starfighter corps. "Apparently this Commander Duccellus came close to starting a diplomatic incident on the starbase?"

"Duccellus is interesting.." Williams said after a moment. "The Turians are a highly militaristic and orderly people who have acted as the council's space cops for the past twelve hundred years. That sort of society always has a chance of creating officers who are..lets say a little over zealous in their duties. However the rest of his crew has been nothing if not perfectly professional and courteous if a little standoffish. They all seem to be interested in our ships and starfighters."

"Aside from military tech both the Asari and Turians seemed really interested in our Medi-gel and some of the civilian technologies found in base." Hanna said as she watched Master Alinco lift the baby up over his head and start talking to him. She knew that despite how it looked the keen eared old man was listening to everything that was being said.

" And I can tell you from personal experience that the Asari are fans of our music and movies." With that Vau gave a knowing wink to Admiral Williams and it was Sheppards turn to release a long suffering sigh.

"Just what kind of movies have you been showing the young woman Major Vau?" Master Alinco said coming to Hannah's rescue. "And do remember that a child is present." Before Major Vau could continue Master Alinco continued on "While we still need to go over the possible social and economic possibilities I can sense that our guests are getting impatient. So it might be a good time to invite them into the conversation."

The grey metal door at the far end of the room slid open allowing Matriarch Benezia to enter the room as well as a female Turian officer who they had yet to meet. The two women were quickly introduced to everyone and given seats.

"I apologize for the Commanders absence" Captain Sittia Regula was the captain of the Graviton and Commander Ducellus' second in command. "He means no disrespect, the commander has just gotten caught up in reviewing the repairs done to our ships." Everyone nodded their heads in understanding while secretly being glad that the Commander had been so detained. What little they had spoken with him in the last three days had been short and strained. He didn't seem to be fond of his own allies, let alone aliens.

"Captain Sittia is here as the Turian representative. It would be nice to have a Salarian here so that every council member could be represented but even so it needs to be understood that everything we say is just to be taken as suggestions, we can't actually form any binding treaties ourselves." The matriarch looked over John as he squirmed in the lap of the old man who had introduced himself as the leader of the Jedi Order. She had seen him a time or two before and from what she had noticed human babies were not all that different from Asari ones.

"Of course, we understand and are happy for any suggestions you can give us that will be able to make a future alliance easier to set up." President Hayes took a moment to look at the two aliens sitting at the end of the table. He had seen pictures and videos of them but it was different to see them in the flesh so to speak. Let alone to be talking to them. "If I may ask why aren't there any Salarians present? Do your people not serve on the same ships?"

"While you can easily find mixed species crews in the private sector and among some of the gangs our nations feel that we would each play to our unique strengths better if we served on our own ships." Sittia said surprising some of the human members who thought the junior officer would end up relying on the Matriarch to do most of the talking.

"So we have three unique nations with three uniqe sets of naval doctrine and priorities all working together." Admiral Williams said and made a note to bring that up later after the meeting. It could be a slight kink in the plan or it could reveal the best places for each one to fit. Still it would require consideration as things progressed.

"Yes, the council tends to think their way is the best way to do things." The matriarch said to the surprise of the President and the Master Alcinco who had yet to learn just how outspoken the Matriarch was about her own people and the citadel council. Even Captain Sittia seemed unsurprised to hear the matriarch voicing such concerns. "Don't get me wrong this has led to great advancements in our preferred fields but at times it does make working together...less than ideal"

President Hayes started to ask questions about the proper diplomatic proceedings and behaviour when given an audience with the council and matters soon turned more day to day planning of the upcoming trip to the Citadel before drifting from economics and entertainment to colonization efforts energy needs. Thirty minutes later John's hungry cry signaled the end of the meeting with everyone agreeing to come back after a long lunch break.

"Matriarch" Master Alinco said rising slowly rising from his chair with a loud groan as the other members of the group made their way towards the door "Would you do an old man a favor and accompany him on a short walk."

Matriarch Benezia tried to contain a small smile at the old man's antics. Walks between foerign dignitaries after sitting down to discuss diplomacy must be a universal constant she imagined. And despite his age, which was considerable for a human, he had been nothing if not sharp and clear headed during the discussion and was obviously playing up this part of the ritual for their own amusement.

"I would be delighted Master Alinco" Benezia said extending her arm for Alinco to take. "It has been some time since I have been able to take a walk with such an aged and experienced statesman such as yourself."

"And it's been awhile since I have had the pleasure of taking a walk with such a beautiful and successful woman as yourself Matriarch."

"Didn't Jedi Sheppard escort you onto the station?" Benezia teased.

"Family doesn't count." Master alinco said throwing the Matriarch a sideways wink. The two spent their walk to one of the forward observation bubbles of the station making small talk about family and their homeworlds. As they walked Benezia's mind was stuck on how right all of this felt. For the past two weeks their human hosts had been nothing if not gracious and hospitable with them as well as being forthcoming about what was obviously common knowledge to them. It felt like there was some connection that had been made. And yes, logically, she knew that such bonds tend to form during times of stress and that it didn't hurt either group that they were so closely similar in appearance. And yes, a large part of it was her wanting to be able to use this new tech to advance her people's society and finally clear out the threats to galactic stability. But it wasn't just her, all of her crew seemed to be finding the same sort of connections with this new race. For a moment she considered if they possessed some sort of mental manipulation that drew other races to them like some claimed the Asari did.

Finally they made it to a small park that sat inside an observation dome pointed at the planet. From the dome she could see the sparkling blue oceans and wide plains of the planet as well as many of the Ninth Fleet's ships passing by as they rotated around towards the nightside of the planet.

"I think it was the will of the force we met you first." Master Alinco said removing his arm from hers and using the guide rail to lean on.

"I can understand how Commander Ducclleus would have caused a strain between any future relations between our people, maybe even a war. But he shouldn't be taken as an example of what all turians are like." Benezia said turning away from ships floating outside to look at the flowers and trees surrounding the patio. Human design while being more hard lines and functional edges like the turians also seemed to still leave room for beauty.

"Yes I think Captain Sittia is proof of that. But I wasn't talking about the Turians or even your race in particular. Though I would be lying if I said that meeting a species so much like ourselves has helped a lot more than if we had met say the Volus or Hanar" He said referring to a pair of the species mentioned in the Codex they had been given to go over. "I am talking about you specifically."

At any number of other occasions Matriarch Benezia would have thought the man was flattering her or coming on to her. But the sincerity in his voice was just a little to real, a little too serious to be fake. "I was just doing my duty as a diplomat to warn you about the Batarian threat and try to prepare you to enter the galactic stage." She said in a reflexive motion. She wasn't sure where the man was going with this but his next words shocked her with their bluntness.

"And your duty to your people to secure a new and powerful ally. One that can be used to help your people advance technologically and maintain their position in galactic politics as well as act as a layer of defense against these threats in the Terminus and Batarian Hegemony." Alinco's tone didn't hold any hint of condemnation or scorn. It was just said as a straight fact like the eta of an orbital shuttle to its landing pad. Benezia started to respond but Alinco held up a hand to quiet her. " That is to be expected. Especially from a long lived race such as yours that must see everyone else as children playing with toys. But what is admirable is your reasons for doing it. If what your people say is true, and if what my Granddaughter and myself sense from you is correct you are not doing this just for personal power or just to ensure that your people stay in power, but because you feel that it is best for the security and safety of the galaxy as a whole"

A silence fell over the observatory as Benzia chewed on his words. The Humans were unlike any previous race they had met. Technologically they were on par or more advanced than the citadel in many areas. And the size and cultural strength of their Alliance was to big for them to be bullied and persuaded by the Matriarchs on Thessia like the other council worlds were. Finally there was a race that could force a change in the status quo, that could pull their wizened old heads out of the sand. And one that seemed to want to help them.

A long shadow passed over the observation bubble casting it in darkness and causing the lamps in the artificial park to turn on. Benezia looked up and watched as a tiny sliver of the Avalon passed over them like a whale in an aquarium. "You can't bring the Avalon to the Citadel. You would scare every member of the council and end up with every fleet in the sector showing up."

"Good they need to be afraid." Alinco said in a voice that was as cold and icy as the void between them and the Avalon. Benezia knew that wasn't a threat. Even if she hadn't been with the humans for nearly a month she would have known by the barely perceptible hint of fear in the man's voice that it wasn't a threat, it was a warning.

"The video Admiral Williams showed us. That's what we need to be worried about isn't it." Galactic invaders were nothing new to the Alliance. First the Rachni and then the Korgan who were used to deal with the Rachni had left the Citadel aware of the horrors that could be lurking in the stars. It was why they had stopped exploration of relay systems. "That's why you've built all of this. Incase those things come back." She said looking at the Master and for a moment she could see the years that weighed on the man's shoulders. "Its surprising that you're people are not entirely xenophobic"

"One of the perks of being old and wizened is that one can talk more freely about things and it will just be chalked up to an old man rambling on." Alinco said as he took a small round device out of his pocket and placed it on the railing between them. A series of small beeps sounded in quick succession before a small shroud of light came out to envelop the two of them preventing anyone overhearing what was being said. "I'm going to explain something to you. Something some may think I shouldn't. But you know how us old people like to ramble on and on about things."

Benezia found herself leaning closer to try and hear him better. The old man was an expert storyteller, his voice dropping in volume and pitch to draw her inwards, to share a secret between just the two of them. "Humans are not pack animals in the way some predators are, though our families are very dear to us. Nor are we heard animals in the same way herbivores tend to be though we do find ourselves going along with what others are doing just to fit in. But we are social, highly highly social to the point where a lack of human contact for a prolonged period of time can lead to psychological and even physical problems. To a human being alone against their will is one of the worst things we can imagine." Benezia understood that. The Asari were a highly social people to the point that when it came to mating it was seen as better to mate with another species than to turn their backs on them and mate with an Asari.

" For centuries humans have looked to the skies to see if there was anyone out there. Giant telescopes were set up in deserts and on top of mountains pointed out into the galaxy hoping to pick up any sound that could tell us we were not alone." He turned to look at Benezia for a moment drawing her into the story. He didn't need to use the force at all to play with her emotions, what she had already seen was enough to do that. "But do you know what is worse than being alone?"

"Yes, we have the Rachni and the Krogans to show us that." Benezia said. Though they had been discovered well after the Salrians and after the Asari were strong enough to be able to protect them self. "Your people hadn't even left your system yet when you found that recording had you?"

"The video contained one final transmission with it. A signal from the Prothean homeworld to whoever was at that outpost. It only contained four words. Words that had been our greatest fear since starting the search." At this point Alinco's voice was nearly a whisper. "Run, they are coming".

"What about the crashed ship you found on your planets moon?" At this point Benezia was pulled into the story. The humans were not primitives. Having built what they had and risen as fast as they did from a single planet it was apparent. But still something had scared them the same way a tribe would be of thunder thinking it was an angry god.

"That is what may have saved us from being overtaken by xenophobia. And of course going down the same technological path". At this point Alinco's voice was more contemplative than quiet. "We had proof that there were others out there. At least in other galaxies. Maybe even in our own. People who would be our friends and allies. Do you know why we call ourself the Galactic Alliance? It is such a silly name for a political body that is made up of one species in a tiny section of the galaxy isn't it." Benezia didn't comment on the obvious hypothetical but it had been something she had wondered over. It had seemed like a bit of arrogance to name themselves such.

"As I said we are social animals. Ones that have found time and again that great alliances lead to peace, stability, and security. On the ship we found there were a dozen different alien bodies. They too called themselves an alliance. And their history spoke of how that alliance had liberated the galaxy from tyranny and protected it from extragalactic invaders. So in honor of them and built on our own history that is what we set out to form. A galaxy wide alliance that could defend the galaxy should whatever it was that destroyed the protheans returned."

"And you wish for me to help make this alliance happen?" Benezia's shock must have shown on her face as alinco laughed.

"I know it must sound strange but yes. We are going to need an ally who can help us make inroads. Bureaucracies are notoriously hard to change. Its a part of their design and a way to ensure stability. Of course their are going to be issues when it comes to our place in Galactic society and we will have a lot to iron out when it comes to trade and distribution of technology. But I am telling you this because I think meeting you was not just happenstance but the will of the force."

In all of her years as a matriarch or diplomat no one had ever been that blunt with her. Well one person had, Aethyta had been. She had been the one to open her eyes to the council and the matriarchs, to the stagnation of their society and infrastructure. And Aethyta proved that being blunt was not the same as being stupid. That there were times when laying everything out in the open made it clear that you were serious about the problem. These humans could help with the termanus system and the batarians and even help them prepare for this possibly unknown threat. Whatever they were going to do it was going to turn the galaxy on its head and it would be better for her to be there to help them. " I think this alliance is just what the citedal needs to get its but in gear"

"Good, I think it's time I told you about Operation Clipeus. We thought that while the Sofia Fos was docked with us it would be a good time to get started on seeing how well our technology and your's would work together"

A hundred meters underneath the observation platform Major Vau was standing at a firing range looking at the Alliance combat armor that hung loosely from the target hook. Though 'at' may have been giving too much credit to the armor in his mind as he could easily make out the holes in the rear wall where the mass effect rounds passed easily through the armor.

"It's a good thing we none of the batarians on the ship had a personal shield" A sargent said as Vau inspected one of the holes with his armored finger. Her name plate said Dune and Skirata recognized her as one of the Basilisk shock troopers. "If even a handful of them had been equipped with kinetic barriers our boarding may have went differently." She said beating her fist against the grey metal chest plate she wore.

"Alliance armor was made to withstand plasma based weaponry like our blasters not slugthrowers" Vau said taking the armor off the rack and replacing it with a set taken from a dead batarian trooper.

"Their guns are a bit more than slugthrowers sir. As fast as they are sending bullets down range a single grain of sand could take off a troopers head. Good thing for us they overheat pretty fast" Dune said picking up a rifle that had been taken from the same dead batarian the armor had been.

Vau sent the new set of armor to the end of the range and instructed the computers to run a full spectrum scan on it as he tested out the kinetic barrier. Taking out his A-280 blaster rifle and sighting down range Vau pulled the trigger and didn't let go until the armor's personal shield let out a loud pop sound and he saw the blaster bolt impact armor. Checking the readout for the ammo Vau cursed loudly. "Nearly an entire clip just to drop the shield"

Over by the monitors sargent Dune watched as the armor started to grow brighter and brighter under the thermal energy monitor. The numbers reaching nearly a hundred degrees by the time Major Vau let go of the trigger and sat the blaster down on the table. "Yes sir, but according to these readings it's not going to take a whole clip to bring down the armor. Not unless our targets want to be broiled by their own shields"

Major Vau joined her at the monitors and whistled as the readout replayed the test fire. As soon as the first bullet impacted the shield the heat of the plasma started to get trapped between the shield and the armor raising the temperature by six or seven degrees, half a round of ammunition had raised it to seventy degrees celsius which was deadly to humans in under eight minutes. By the time the shield popped the armor was spiking at one-hundred and ten degrees, more than enough to fry most carbon based life forms.

"Unless they drop their shields to let the absorbed heat dissipate they are going to fry" Dune said turning to look at the armor. "In a way their personal shields have the same faults as ours. Except instead of frying them with radiation they would be killed by the build up of thermal energy" Calling the armor back to the front of the range Skirata laid it down on the table next to the shredded Alliance issue battle armor. "And it looks like once we get the shield down we should be able to take them out with one or two good shots" Sargent Dune said as Vau turned it over showing the large jagged hole that had been burnt through the armor.

"Still that shielding tech has us at a disadvantage. Our guys won't even get the chance to take out any hostels if all it takes is one shot from them while we have to put in at least fifteen good shots to make them drop their shields"

"Actually sir that's not really a problem, barely an inconvenience." Sargent Dune said "According to the codex we were giving the kinetic barriers are built into their armors using small mass effect field emitters. It shouldn't be any trouble for our guys at the Maw to quicky work up a new batch of amor with these emitters for use against these style of weapons"

Vau raised an eyebrow at that "So what then would be the barely inconvenient part of that Sargent?"

"Well sir," Dune was suddenly hesitant to explain her idea and the twitch of a smile on Vau's face wasn't helping "It's technically illegal."

"Only technically Sargent?" Vau pressed.

"Yes sir, technically we are not to use or adapt any element zero technology incase it could be used against us at a future time by the unknown aliens sir." Vau didn't say anything and waited for the sargent to figure a way out of the hole she had gotten into."

After a moment he decided to press her with a soft questioning "but?"

Dune took her time to think for another moment before looking up at him with renewed vigor "But the secondary mission of Operation Clipeus was to find technology and weaponry that we could use for our own defense. And using these barriers now would allow us to save lives while our scientists work on creating element zero free shielding."

"Good idea. Make sure to include that recommendation in the report you are writing for President Hayes" Vau said placing a hand on her shoulder as he walked by.

"Sir?" Sargent Dune asked turning to watch him head towards the door to the locker room.

"Perks of rank sergeant. I get to shoot the cool alien guns and you get to write the report." With that and a wave the door slid shut behind Vau leaving Dune alone with the armor and guns. Cara Dune looked at the guns for a moment before grabbing a target disk and placing it on the hook to be sent down range.

"No reason I can't write the report and shoot the cool alien guns. Sir." She said to herself as she picked up the rifle.

Onboard the Sofia Fos Benezia sat on a circle of pillows cradling a warm tea from the southern isles of Thessia in her hands. As much as she had been enjoying her time with the humans and as much effort as they made to be inclusive to the Asari it was still nice to be able to retreat back to a private space that was totally familiar to her.

Around her sat Laranth, the Sofia Fos' pilot and Aerith the ships communications officer. Each were relaxing on the pillows sipping their own tea or swirling it around in their cups waiting for it to cool down. "You know, Skirata was telling me about an ancient Alliance empire that conquered three fourths of their world just to get better prices for their tea." Laranth said testing the brownish liquid with her lips.

"We'll put tea down as a potential export then." Benezia said before adding "At reduced prices of course" this earned a small polite laugh from the other two women. "So Laranth did what Master Alinco say check out?"

"Yes ma'am" Laranth said sitting down her cup and picking up a datapad, "I went over this ship stem to stern and checked all of the little additions their engineers had added. A lot of it was based off of napkin sketches they came up with while talking to our crew and is highly experimental. But I can see how it was already being used to gauge the compatibility of our two systems."

"And is it?" Benezia asked. When Alinco had told her that Operation Cliepus was about arming any potential allies with scaled down versions of their own weapons to help defend against the return of the unknown aliens it had made a lot of their behaviour more understandable. They weren't being forthcoming with information just because they liked the Asari but because their plan of defense was built upon the idea of multiple nations acting as one with nearly the same level of technology. Benezia new better than to demand the same level of technology as the alliance had right off the bat. That much trust would take time to build. She just hopped the Citadel would see it that way.

"Not even close ma'am. The secondary systems can all be easily upgraded with their tech but something like their canons or engines would need more power than we have to run them. And any one of their generators would fry our energy conduits. We would need a whole secondary set of generators and power conduits just to attach one of their blasters to the Sofia Fos"

"So we are talking total refits for every ship. Maybe even scrapping them down to the hull and rebuilding them. That would take years and years to do." Benezia didn't much like the sound of that. A decade or even two wasn't that long to a Asari but it would still be a drain on resources and manpower to have to rotate an entire fleet though and rebuild them from the ground up"

"Possibly though I get the feeling that it's not what the Alliance has in mind. They have already been testing some of my staff on their flight sims and weapon displays. And when asked about adding mass effect tech into their systems they are highly reluctant to do it"

"And are you getting all of this from your new friend?" Aerith asked. She normally wouldn't make such a childish tease in front of a matriarch but it was to fun to watch her normally stern commander squirm like a maiden.

"Major Vau has been a great companion during these trying times and I am simply doing by best to further Human-Asari relations" Laranth said.

'You and just about every other unmarried asari on the ship' Benezia thought. Not that she blamed them. If she hadn't been thinking of Liara's father so often she may have tried to further relations with Admiral Williams. "Speaking of relationships how are the Turians doing? Were you able to find out what the Commander Duccellus told the Hierarchy?"

"Yes ma'am, despite first contact regulations he was using standard level 1 encryption on his transmission. From what was said we can most likely expect a large Turian presence at the Citadel when we return." Aerith couldn't stop rolling her eyes at the machismo that dripped from the message. The Turians always seemed to be worried about losing their place as the strongest members of the galaxy. Even though they had only gotten there because of the genophage nearly wiping out the Krogans.

"On the one hand I really don't blame them. A new power with a large navy entering the galactic stage could be a threat to the citadel. They don't know the Alliance like we do yet so I can understand why they are nervous. still I hope they don't make it too difficult." Benezia contemplated the issue. They were going to need a way to get the Turians on board quickly before they could feel like they were losing their social standing. The Hanar, Elcor, and Volus would all just be happy for new markets to sell to or people to preach to. And she was sure that the prospect of new technology would be enough to bring the majority of Salarians into the fold. It was really just her own people and the more hardline Turians who would have a problem with the new state of affairs.

"According to Major Vau the fleet should be ready to jump out tomorrow morning and make their way to the Citadel" Laranth said sitting her cup down on the floor and grabbing some of the biscuits and placing them between her tea cup and the carrying tray. "The reason we have had to wait so long was because they needed to plot the best route to the Citadel for their ships." Munching on a biscuit Laranth grabbed a teaspoon and placed it on the edge of the tray. "Let's say that this tray is Shanxi and my cup is the Citadel and each of these biscuits are a neighboring system." She said pointing the spoon at the food arranged on the floor in a neat line. "If we want to get home we would just slingshot from one cluster to the next until we came out at the end of that branch of the network." Laranth picked up the cookies from their straight line and let them drop back onto the floor landing in a random pile between her cup and the plate. "However unless the Alliance wants to stop in each system and recalculate their FTL jump they have to find the path that avoids the largest mass shadows created by planetary systems."

"So other than making a mess on the floor what you are saying is that the trip is going to be a lot of stopping and starting over and over for the Alliance fleet while we just get a nice straight shot home." Benezia said as Laranth quickly picked up the biscuits and what crumbs she could.

"Yes. Which gives us a slight advantage when it comes to moving around the galaxy. We are able to travel nearly instantly from relay to relay while they require a path clear of mass shadows and other hazards"

"That sounds like more than slight to me." Aerith said placing her tea cup on the serving dish. "How long are we going to end up waiting for them if we go on ahead?"

"Well that's why I said a slight advantage. Not every system in a cluster has a mass relay. How long does it take for ftl to get you from system to system?" Laranth asked but continued on before anyone could answer. "About 15 light years a day right? Their ftl is a dozen times faster than that. From the numbers I saw they could cross from one side of the galaxy to another in anywhere from two to three weeks depending on the path. We may be able to instantly travel to any cluster we want but inside that cluster their ships would be able to beat us from system to system" Laranth wasn't trying very hard to hide the excitement in her voice. To the pilot and many of the engineers the past week and a half had been like going to a theme park.

Since the creation of the Citadel the Asari had been the dominant cultural force and Benezia could imagine that the speed at which her crew were adopting and taking to the newcomers would frighten many of the matriarchs. Though from what little she was able to overhear it seemed that the feeling was mutual on the Alliance side and they were as taken with the Asari and the younger more social turians.

"No wonder they explore so much further from the relays than we do." Benezia said. "But still it will take the fleet what? A week to reach the Citadel then?"

"More like a week and a half but yes."

"Hmm that is a long time to let the Turians and council stew and come up with worst case scenarios . And even if we could get there today the Council isn't going to like an entire fleet just showing up at their doorstep unannounced. It might be best if I send you along with the Sofia Fos ahead with the Turian fleet while I stay behind and act as an envoy for the Citadel."

"I think if we can get Captain Sittia to help us we should be able to keep them from having every ship in the galaxy sitting there waiting for the Alliance by the time they arrive. Does the Council even know how large the incoming fleet is?" Laranth asked Aerith

"So far all of the messages that have made it out system have just listed the number of ships in the fleet by their designated role. Nothing has been said about their size or weight class." There was a light emphasis on the "made it out" part that made Laranth quirk her eyeridge.

The following day Benezia watched the Sofia Fos and the Turian fleet leap out of system from the viewport of the Avalon. The Far Ranger was still the flagship of the fleet but Master Alinco had convinced her that the short trip would be more comfortable in the VIP cabins aboard the Avalon than it would be in one of the unused officer cabins on the Far Ranger. After the battle the fleet had been rearranged. With the Avalon carrying its own wing of starfighters the Pearl Harbor was being left behind with the picket ships and the three MC-30 Frigates. The Avalon was going to be escorted by the six majestic-class heavy cruisers, two republic- class star destroyers, the Far Ranger, and the remaining two MC-30 Frigates for Admiral Williams fleet. Along with the Avalons own complement of destroyers, frigates, cruisers, and other ships meant to secure the safety of the alliances most prized ship. As one the 28 ship fleet turned towards the stars and quickly disappeared into the tunnel of Hyperspace.

Far away from Shanxi on an asteroid orbiting a sun in its final death throes a pair of eyes glanced over a new message. The iriss matching the dying star in the view screen they quickly read over the message. First contact had been made.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Sorry for the lack of spacing between the POV changes in the last chapter. In my googledoc their was a double return between each pov change when it switched areas (like bezzie talking to laranth switching to Vau talking to Cara). But somehow that did not translate over when I saved and uploaded the chapter.

Chapter 4

"Is there anything else I can help you with mistress?"

"No 3TY that will be all" After ten days on the Avalon Benezia was still not comfortable around what the alliance called droids. She hadn't seen or noticed any on the starbase or Far Ranger, at least none of the humanoid model that had been assigned as her valet. Despite constant reassurances that the droids were not going to go on a murderous rampage and weren't a truly self conscious AI she couldn't help but think about the Quarians and what happened to them. Still in a way it was just a VI put into a mobile shell so it wasn't that bad. Though it would most likely become a sticking point for the Citadel Council.

"Yes mistress. I'll just remind you that Admiral Williams is awaiting you on the bridge for our arrival at the Citadel and go on my way". The grey and green droid turned around and started walking away and Benezia caught herself from saying thank you to the droid like she had seen the humans do. They were even in the habit of thanking the small little mouse droids that ran around cleaning up the ship.

"I wonder if Flight Officer Kellex is still mad about the little red one I tore apart the other day?" Ashala asked stepping intco a flanking position behind Benezia.

"All it wanted to do was say high and you warped that thing into the ceiling. What did you do the first time you saw Avina? Rip the kiosk out of the wall?" her partner teased. Benezia was glad they could joke about it. Still the humans didn't really treat these droids as simple AI and they had a lot more character than the Citadel's information VI.

Even after more than a week she and her commandos still attracted attention as they made their way across powered walkways and up turbolifts to the command bridge. Every technician and trooper in the hallway turned to watch them pass. She always smiled back at them as they watched mouths agape. Soon they would be seeing a lot more alien species up close. And hopefully in a few years or decades be working beside them in ships not to much different than this one.

Reaching the command deck she wound her way over to the duty officer, impressed at how their hadn't been any back straightening or wrinkle fixing from the bridge crew when she entered. turians and Krograns seemed to make the mistake of assuming all asari were delicate and flighty, and she could see them easily making the same mistake about the humans. "Matriarch," The duty officer said once Benezia had made her way over to his station. "Admiral Williams and Knight Sheppard are waiting for you in the Admiral's cabin ma'am. Both Master Alinco and Admiral Fraiser are going over away procedures but I can contact them if you wish them to join you for lunch."

"Thank you lieutenant but that will be unnecessary. Master Alinco and I talked this morning over breakfast and I had a wonderful dinner with Admiral Carpenter last night. I'm sure that she and the grandmaster have nearly had enough of my company this past week."

"I'm not sure that is possible ma'am" Benezia wasn't totally sure what it meant when a human turned red at the ears but from the quiet snickers emanating from one of the sensor officers she assumed it meant he was embarrassed. Benezia gave the lieutenant a big smile and turned towards the Admiral's cabin. Walking down the short hallway off the bridge's port side she left her two commandos guarding the door as she walked into the large spacious room that did double duty as office and dining room.

Hannah was standing at one of the large windows looking out into the tunnel of hyperspace and rocking her son in her arms as a silver protocol unit plated the food. Sensing the Matriarchs presence she turned around and smiled at her and moving away from the window. "Good morning Matriarch. Corso is in the latrine but should be out as soon as he gets done fussing over his hair"

"Yes, I can see how all of that hair you humans have must be very annoying to take care of."

"It is, it's why I usually just keep mine in braids. From what the codex said we are the only species that actually have hair?" Hannah sat down at the table and tried to get a fussy John into his baby chair.

"Uh may I hold him?" Benezia asked walking over to the struggling infant. She had been around the child for the entire week and this was the first time she had asked if she could hold him.

"Sure go ahead." Hannah passed John over to Benezia who took him into her arms with a practiced ease and cradled him against her chest. John's big brown eyes stared up at the strange blue woman for a moment and Benezia was afraid he was going to start crying until he let out a giggle and started sucking on his fist.

"This is nice. It's been a long time since I've held a child this young" Benezia said moving to sit down in one of the seats.

"How old is your daughter?" Benezia had mentioned that she had a daughter but hadn't really made mention of how old she was.

"She just turned eighty this year" Benezia held back a laugh as Hannah choked on her drink.

"I guess its has been a while since then." Hannah said between coughs.

"Yes, she's finally starting her secondary education. In a few years she will hopefully be picking out what college she wishes to attend. What about this one? Is he going to become a Jedi as well?"

"No he's going to join the naval academy and become a pilot or starship captain like his uncles." Admiral Williams said as he walked into the room. "No boring diplomatic functions or party tricks for him. Just a fast ship and the freedom of open skies."

"I'm pretty sure ever since they gave you those stars you've been to twice the diplomatic functions I have" Hannah said as Corso pulled up a chair and forked a big piece of ham onto his plate. Hannah purposefully ignored Corso and turned back to Benezia "He will be a Jedi if he wants. He is extremely strong in the force. But if that is not the path he chooses then there are always other jobs open to him, even jobs in the order that would not require him to travel or fight"

"That is something that has been confusing me." Benezia said holding John in one arm and grabbing some vegetables for her plate with an ease that spoke of a lot of experience at doing things with one hand. "What exactly is the role of the Jedi. You mention fighting and diplomacy and even though you don't dress like the soldiers they still all salute you when you walk by."

Hannah thought for a moment about the best way to tackle that question. It was one that the order itself dealt with. "A jedi uses the force for defense, never for attack" Benezia quirked her eyeridge at the koan. "In other words a Jedi is not to be an aggressor. Our duty is to use our powers to find a third path to a problem and only use force when necessary. There are many who think that the Jedi should be nothing more than monks meditating on the meaning of the universe. Or that we should not be so closely tied to the Alliance. And maybe in a perfect universe that would be possible. In the records we have the history of the Jedi in the other galaxy spoke of them losing their way for a melinia and outlawing marriage and emotions and becoming generals in a slave army until they were destroyed and replaced by a better order by a man named Skywalker. We try not to fall into many of the same traps that the old order did as you can tell" Hannah said pointing her fork at the sleeping infant in Benezia's arms "But with the existential threat of an unknown alien race bent on the destruction of all life we can't just sit back and do nothing. So some of us decide to join the military and assist there while our brothers and sisters deal with diplomacy or the smaller threats such as pirates."

"We have an order like that in asari space. They are called justicars. Though they usually take a vow of non-attachment." Benezia said. "Speaking of that, is your husband a jedi?"

"Scott's a grease monkey. He's probably up to his elbows in what's left of those Batarian ships." Corso said around a boiled potato.

"My husband is one of the chief engineers for starship design. Which if I'm being honest is kinda ironic as he does not like to travel at all. Which is why he isn't here with us." Hannah clarified.

"Yeah the guy could probably make a working ship out of junkyard scraps but you have to knock him out to get him on a shuttle. That or mind trick him" Corso laughed at what must have been an old joke from Hannah's half hearted rebuttal.

"That was once and I apologized"

"I hate to interrupt the thirty-second retailing of that riveting story but we will soon be approaching the Citadel." A sardonic voice said from thin air.

"Thank you Andy. We will make our way to the bridge." Hannah said

"Andy what kind of progress are you making on on your assignment." Corso asked as he started to bus the table.

"Currently I am predicting a fifty-two percent positive outcome based on data at hand. I feel that once I can access their version of the holonet and see the reactions of the councillors I will be able to raise that percentage to eighty-four percent." Taking the baby back form Benezia Hannah led the group back onto the bridge of the ship where there was now a lot more activity going on.

"Navigator what is our status?" Admiral Fraiser asked as the group came up beside her.

"Three minutes out ma'am." A young red haired navigator answered. "Due to our size and the estimated amount of air traffic around the space station we are going to come out of hyperspace a thousand klicks from the station and make the rest of the trip on sublight drives."

"Excellent. We will approach the station at one-third thrust. Quick enough to get us there but long enough that it doesn't look like we are stampeding them." Turning towards her four passengers Admiral Fraiser quickly saluted the admiral and Hannah before shaking the matriarchs hand. "I hope you have enjoyed your stay on the Avalon Matriarch"

-Citadel Council Chambers, June 2157-

"The whole station is buzzing with excitement. I don't think the station has been like this since the Turians joined" Teari T'kaana said casually as she sipped on a spiced wine that had been uncorked for such an occasion. "It's been how long since another race has came to us seeking to join?"

"My agents have been paying special attention to the extranet this past week. Stories of a mysterious fleet jumping in and out of systems between here and relay 314 have been popping up with the fleet getting bigger and bigger each time it jumps." Yargin Raxe, the salarian dalatrass said "And the people on station are driving themselves crazy with theories on what these humans look like and what they want and what new sorts of entertainment they could bring"

"As long as they know their place and follow the rules of the Council" The turian councillor said gruffly. Canus Orocus did not like what he had been hearing from some of his friends in the Hierarchy now that they had been able to have a sit down chat with Commander Duccellus

"The station's flight control seems to be picking up new contacts coming out of the nebula" Raxe said and instructed the rooms largest window to zoom in at a speck of space slightly above the space station.

-Presidium-

The walkways of the presidium were packed shoulder to shoulder as everyone crowded around to see the newcomers. Their heads all tilted upwards where the artificial sky was now showing pictures of the space around the station. Currently it was showing the Citadel defense fleet arranged around the Destiny Ascension as they rotated towards the new arrivals. A well trained observer would have noticed the number of turian ships that had been added to the fleet over the past week. The fleet was now over double its normal size and huge dreadnought hung in the void around the station.

The cameras blurred with motion as they zoomed in on the nebula above the station as the gasses were pushed aside by the new and unusual ships. Cheers went up and hundreds of discussions started as ships started to pour out of the nebula. The camera angle changing to that of a news flyer to get a closer look at the mix of new varied ship types. Some were smooth hulled and looked more like sea corals while others had right angles and hard curves.

The mood in the presidium changed as the ships kept coming in twos and threes, a wave of ships that seemed like they would never end. The Citadel's fleet still outnumbered them three to one but some people were beginning to get nervous about this unknown fleet right outside their windows.

"Twenty-Seven, I wonder where the last ship is" A gruff voice asked as it poured another shot of krogan whiskey into a glass. "Ahh yes, there it is. This will be interesting." The presidium darkened as the camera was suddenly blocked by a huge object. After a second the signal shifted to another ship and the whole station went silent as the Avalon broke though the nebula, the gases flowing around her like clouds around a mountain. People stared in shock as the ship emerged from the gaseous cocoon. Every second people thinking that it had to be nearly out of the veil only for it to continue growing larger and larger in their cameras.

No one spoke as after a full minute the entire ship had made its way out of the cloud and now took its place in the center of the fleet. The codex hadn't yet been updated with the side of Alliance vessels but everyone could tell that the ship that had just appeared dwarfed even the prized Destiny Ascension or Palavan's Spear. The hushed murmurs started again as the Citadel fleet moved itself in front of the space station. "Hmm and they say size doesn't matter. Well I guess I need to go get ready to Bezzie" the gruff voice said laying down a credit chip on the table.

-Citadel Council Chambers, June 2157-

The silence in the council chambers was broken by the sound of a wine glass hitting the orval wood table. "What is that thing? Did they transport a whole space station here?" Counselor T'kaana whispered moving closer to the image displayed on the window.

"That is the Avalon." Councillor Orocus stated gruffly from his seat. "According to the commander who made first contact with them that is the largest ship in their navy."

"It was an asari who made first contact councillor" T'kaana reminded him, "Still something that big must be very important to them. To transport it all the way here must mean they feel very secure about their own strength"

"Secure yes. But also trusting no? They let it venture so far from their own space because they trust us not to attack it" Yargin Raxe said.

"That or it's a threat. Traditional dreadnaught diplomacy" Orocus countered. "They think they can come in and threaten us and demand a place on the council."

"We haven't even spoken to them yet" Raxe said "Nor has Matriarch Benezia been debriefed yet." While the dalatrass liked playing her two fellow councillors against each other most days she was finding herself opposite both of them. salarians as a whole didn't like making decisions until they had workable intel.

\- Citadel Station Orbit, June 2157-

The crews of the Citadel navy were not as quiet as the civilians in the presidium. Crew members watching from their bunks, cockpits, break rooms, and even duty stations were talking about the fleet approaching them. The ship captains at least tried to keep their bridge silent but many of them were soon caught up in the conversations as their ships maneuvered to give room to the newcomers without giving a clear shot at the Citadel.

News of the new race had spread like wildfire among the defense fleet the past week and a half. It seemed like the crew of the Sofia Fos was always to be found in one of the bars near the docks ready to talk about what they had seen for the price of a cheap drink. Even some of the officers had learned about the scuttle butt first hand from Captain Sittia after she had requested reassignment to the Citadel to greet the newcomers. All across the fleet people marveled at the new ships and wondered if even half of the stories had been true.

The crew aboard the Alliance ships were also marveling at the sight of the gleaming space station sitting in the center of the nebula. Earth and the colonies had never built anything like it in their short history in space. Even their nicest starports still had a look of utilitarianism from the outside but this station was a work of art. The Destiny Ascension even captured a few eyes as it lead the Citadel fleet towards their ships. The giant four pointed star with its glowing hollow center seemed like some sort of deep sea creature swimming though an ocean of stars.

-Citadel Docking Bay 227-

The docking bay had been packed with news crews, minor dignitaries, and random onlookers as the small hammerheaded intersystem transport craft came into the landing pad, its four large engines at the rear powering down as it touched the ground. The small transport was as much a matter of not having a ship small enough to dock as it was the Citadel council not wanting to let a warship from a unallied nation that close to the station. So instead the transport had been escorted in by a mix of Alliance A-wing interceptors and the Citadel's own small allotment of fighters.

Cameras zoomed in and onlookers leaned closer as the doors of the transport slid open revealing a small squad of blue and white armored figures stepping out of the transport and taking up position on either side of the small transport. Behind them came Matriarch Benezia being escorted off the ship by Admiral Williams. Cameras flashed as everyone tried to be the first to snap a picture of the humans as they left the transport. Behind Corso were Knight Sheppard and Master Alinco in full jedi robes followed by a helmeted Skirata Vau and two of his super commandos.

People didn't know what to focus on first and the holofeeds were quickly a jumble of people picking apart everything about them.

"Do they have fur everywhere or just on their heads?"

"Are they some kind of asari offshoot? Do they live as long?"

"Only the Krogan and Yhag go so heavily armored what could they want?"

"Who are the ones in robes? Some kind of priests? I hope they aren't as annoying as the Hanar"

Waving the group walked down the catwalk towards the lift guarded by C-Sec guards. The waves of excitement, curiosity, and uncertainty rolled off of the crowds causing the two Jedi to pull the force tightly around them trying not to be deafened by the crowds mental screams on top of their vocal ones. The mandalorian super commandos had it easier and just cut the external audio feed on their helmets.

"I feel like we're in a parade" Vau said over his suits com as they were led through the Presidium.

"But a parade for who? Are they trying to impress us?" One commando asked in a thick scottish accent "Ohh look at all of us and this big space station we built. Isn't so grand?"

"Found not built" A third voice cut in with a clipped english accent that spoke of life in the southern parts of Africa. "According to their own Codex they did not build this station but instead found it. They are just colonists using something someone else constructed"

"So what is the biggest thing these blokes have made?" The scottish commando asked.

"I don't know, maybe that big flying starfish outside. Either way this is their home so be on your best behaviour." Vau looked ahead to where Admiral Williams and the two Jedi were waving at everyone as they passed. He had tried to at least convince Hannah to wear her battle armor but she had replied with the old 'A jedi needs only the force' saying which always made him nervous during a mission.

-Citadel Council, June 2157-

As they walked into the council room Hannah instantly noticed how it was laid out. Three huge dias raised above a speakers platform. She didn't need a psychology degree to tell her what message the Council was trying to send. Even the gap between the speaker and the council's dias was a subtle message. Three council races out of a group of seven races, some of whom had been members for centuries. The Council was used to leading and everyone falling into step behind them. Well, they would just have let the council lead them where they wanted to go.

The three councillors were imposing figures to have to march up to. Their dias high enough that anyone speaking has to look slightly up at them, recognizing them as being above them physically if not politically. Stepping into the center of the speaker's podium Admiral Williams wondered if the Council had designed this room in this fashion or if it was like this when they had discovered the station.

"The Citadel Council recognizes the ambassadors from the Galactic Alliance" Councillor Orocus scoffed at the name as he read it. A big name for such little people.

"Thank you Counselor." Admiral Williams said "I come before you along with Grand Master Alinco and Jedi Knight Sheppard of the Jedi Order to greet you in the name of friendship and in the hopes of a partnership between our two peoples" The crowd burst into applause before he had even gotten out his last word. He knew it wasn't his oration skills that had done it but the cheers and yells still made him feel a bit better.

Corso along with Hannah and Skirata had all wanted to come out swinging with the dire warnings of their unknown alien enemies. But both Matriarch Benezia and Master Alinco had warned against it. At best it would be laughed off as a joke. It was better for them to focus on making connections and getting their foot in the would let this meeting progress and at the appropriate time they would show the council and the people of the alliance the video.

After the initial greetings were out of the way with Corso gave the podium over to Master Alinco and just stood back and watched how the crowd reacted to the master's words. He wasn't nearly as interested in the council as he was the men, women, and children in the stands watching them. Even if the council wasn't already stacked against them due to their expectation that everyone bows to them nothing ever got done in preliminary meetings. The real treaties and trade deals would be made in offices across the Citadel and its space in the coming weeks and months. This whole thing was just political theater. But theater that the Jedi Master was using to their benefit.

"Yes councillors we can understand the fears you have of a new unknown power right next door to your people. Matriarch Benezia has already told us of the lengths your fleets and the council itself goes to to secure peace for your people. And we have already been able to fight alongside the brave turian fleet against the pirates who drove the Matriarch to our door. We are still new to the galactic stage and new to politics and workings of your council. For that reason we would like to request that the turian navy assists us in patrolling the borders we share with Citadel space for pirates and other galactic threats. "

"That could possibly be arranged" The asari ambassador said. She had read the reports and knew that "fought alongside" meant the Alliance shielding the turian ships as they retreated. But it was a good soundbite for the cameras and the onlookers seemed to be loving it. Even counciler Orocus was looking a little bit happier. "Still your fleet breaks Citadel codes, if you are to join the Citadel Alliance you will have to mothball your fleet. Including that large warship floating above our heads" She said hoping to remind the fawning audience about the seventeen kilometer warship outside the station, or its dozens of escorts.

"Your fears are valid ambasador and we understand the reason you have them. But we have fears of our own and reasons why we can not do that. But even if we could destroy our fleet it would make little sense to do it so quickly for reasons I'm sure the esteemed council has already figured out."

"To vast of a technological difference." Yargin Raxe said saving Counselor T'kaana from having to ask the jedi master to clarify. "Your ships. Your technology. It is all so vastly different. No element-zero. No mass relay transit. Any sort of agreement in numbers based on our system would be incorrect. Same for your Virtual Intelligences. The Droids. To us another Geth. But the Matriarch says they are not true AI."

"Exactly counselor. Transport, weapons, ships, manufacturing, ftl, communications, everything in our cultures comes from a vastly different tech tree. We even recognize that given your people's history with robotics and artificial intelligences that some of these may seem scary to you and like the mistakes of another young race." Master Alinco took a breath and tried to look as humble as he could. For the past hour he had been trying to head off every demand he could with their own suggestions. Instead of letting the public see the Councillors commanding a new race to get in line they would hopefully see a thoughtful and respectful race that was doing its best to ensure the wellbeing of both alliances. "For that reason we would invite your scientists to come and visit some of our shipyards and factories so that they could get a better understanding of the difference between our two powers. But not only the differences, the things we have in common. Each of our societies have technology and entertainment that others may find useful or enjoyable and we hope to quickly be able to start trading and learning alongside the alliance."

"You have given us much to thank about Master Alinco" councillor T'kaana said. "Do you have any closing remarks to make before we adjourn to deliberate?"

"We do your honor. I spoke of our own fears previously and said that we could not destroy our ships due to that fear. In fact if anything I would ask you all and your member states to build more ships. As many and as speedily as you can. For the reason we have built such a fleet is because we fear that there is something more dangerous than the Geth or Krogan or even the Rachni out in the galaxy. A danger that destroyed the very people who created this majestic space station in which we currently stand" The turian's presence had shifted back to radiating derision but it seemed that he still had the curiosity of the other two councilmembers at least. And most importantly the citizens were listening to his every word.

With perfect timing every single networked device on the citadel with a screen or holoprojector started emitting Master Alinco's voice over the tape of the mysterious craft coming out of the mass relay. While fixing the Sofia Fos the Alliance techs had noticed that every single piece of equipment and technology the asari had was sending and receiving information constantly on what was basically an open wireless network. That had confused the technicians as everything at least military and diplomatic ships required using a physical interface or at least a very secured wireless network that was only limited to specific functions. Putting everything from life support to communications and weapons on one system was just asking for trouble. And now Andy was using that disadvantage to beam the message to every receiver on the Citadel.

Nearly thirteen million beings watched the video as they heard Master Alinco repeat what he had told Matriarch Benezia. How they had found the prothean ruins while just beginning space flight, how they had discovered the message, and as the four words appeared on the screen how they sought allies to stand with them incase this threat ever returned. Once the video was over the crowd erupted into a thousand different voices. Some wondered how the visitors were able to hijack their communications, some considered the video a prank or thought it was fear mongering, some hanar were upset at them defiling at Prothean structure, and a not insignificant number took them at their word. Their was, as the council had reminded them, a seventeen kilometer ship hanging above their heads. What could drive a race to build something like that if they didn't truly believe it could happen to them.

The council however was not as impressed. Or perhaps couldn't allow themselves to be. They were the duly elected rulers of the civilized galaxy and they were the only galactic superpower. It was beyond their imagination that there was something else out there that could stand the might of their alliance. Not even the Krogan hords had destroyed them. And besides, everyone knew it was a disease or some other natural disaster that caused all of the protheans to go extinct. "Order." Councillor T'Kaana called the viewing chamber finally returned to normal volume. The humans had transmitted the message to everyone so she could not simply dismiss it off hand, nor could she be to harsh on them for their stunt as it seemed they did it in good faith. Before she could do anything a female voice called out from the side of the chamber and all eyes and cameras moved to focus on an elegant blue woman dressed in midnight black.

"I understand how difficult this is to believe councillors" Matriarch Benezia said in a voice that boomed through the halls. This was the final part of the act. She was going to publicly hitch her hoversled to that of the Galactic Alliance. Due to her age and power any notion of her being impared or coerced would be seen as slander so the council and more importantly the citizens of the galaxy had no choice but to listen to her. "But I have seen the videos as well. And during my time with the humans they have done nothing but put their lives on the line to protect myself and my crew. If there is a possible danger out there somewhere we must not turn our backs on it. Our very own history speaks to that. I ask that you take what they say under consideration."

"Very well." Councillor Orocus said "We understand how the galaxy can seem large and fighting to such a young race. So we will excuse this little stunt and take what they have said into consideration. For now though we will adjourn this session and meet in the morning to discuss more concrete terms"

-Avalon's Situation Room, June 2157-

Hannah sat across from Admiral Williams and Master Alinco as a large hologram with the crest of the Galactic Alliance spun in the air between them. A lightsaber with two wings coming out of the hilt the emblem had been that of the New Jedi Order in the old galaxy and the one the members of the Alliance had adopted as their own. Matriarch Benezia had also been invited to the meeting due to her being their contact and for her experience in intergalactic relations.

"Admiral, Master, Matriarch" Hannah tilted her head in greetings to all three of them as she stood to give her report. "Over the past three days Andy and I have been looking at the data available on the 'net as well as polls conducted amongst citizens after our introduction and the council's ruling that we can have temporary embassy on the station until we can get some more diplomats out here." Hannah keyed for the hologram to change to a picture of the milky way. "Matriarch Benezia has been kind enough to lend me her time and expertise. Especially when it comes to dealing with the asari." The Matriarch nodded at Hannah when she said this.

"Thanks to Matriarch Benezia we knew going in that the Council and even the heads of state for each individual race would not be as willing to listen as we wished. Therefore before we can even begin on Operation Clipeus we are going to have to build up a good amount of trust amongst ourselves and the citadel races as well as earn a good amount of social credit. Due to this Andy and I have devised a new path of action that we think can speed up. For now we are calling it Operation Eclipse"

"Yes we thought that Operation Prometheus was to cliche and Operation Pax Societas Galactica to imperial sounding" Andy chirped in from speakers above the admiral. "Operation Eclipse however perfectly describes what we plan to do."

"Which is?" Admiral Williams raised an eyebrow at the name.

"Instead of dealing directly with the council or even the heads of state of each race we plan on winning over the hearts and minds of their citizens." Hannah said directing their attention to the holo display which was now zooming in to show citadel space. "For over 2000 years the Citadel has had complete political, military, and economic hold over the galaxy. It exerts a lot of societal pressure just from its very existence at this point. There are going to be a lot of citizens who would like the galaxy to stay the same tomorrow as it is today. However that stagnation is the key to us overcoming the pressure the Citadel exerts."

"One of the reasons I was so happy to have encountered your fleet was due to that stagnation. As I told you we are only powerful enough to deal with either the Batarians or the Terminus Cluster. The councils inaction towards either party sees tens of thousands of our citizens lost to pirate attacks and slave raids." Benezia said solemnly and reminding them about the attack that had brought them together. "We also haven't progressed technologically in centuries. In fact we have blocked all expeditions outside of known Citadel space in the hopes that if we don't go looking for trouble none will find us."

"So what are your suggestions?" Master Alinco pressed.

"Focusing on the three council races individually we have a number of plans for each one but our main objective is to create a closer military alliance with each state and to have the citizens of the galaxy start to see us as their protectors. Andy would you like to do the honors?"

"Certainly" The hologram zoomed in to focus on the shared borders between Alliance, Citadel, and Batarian space. " Our greatest external threat seems to be the Batarians. A concern many in the Citadel hold according to polls we accessed" Andy said putting up the relevant info on the displays. "The turians pride themselves on being the councils police force. So we suggest recommending a joint operation to tackle pirate and slavery activity on our shared borders and around Batarian space. This will create a sense of shared experiences between the crews as well as showing off our ships abilities to prospective navies."

"The operation will also allow us to better track down and rescue kidnapped asari" Hanna said switching the view of the galaxy over to the asari held systems. "The Matriarchs have a firm grip on asari society but according to Matriarch Benezia some feel that they don't do enough about asari maidens being prime targets for slave raids. If we can track down and destroy these slaver rings and rescue the slaves it should help make us look better and the Matriarchs worse"

"I have some commando's who would love to go after the slavers. Working with them would also spread good word of mouth among the asari commandos." Matriarch Benezia said and motioned with her hand for Hannah to change the image to that of the salarian systems "The only ones who won't be swayed militarily are the salarians. For them I am suggesting some spy work. There are many corrupt Dalatrasses who are harming salarian interests by being more interested in personal wealth and power. If you could expose and eliminate them the Salarain people would be more apt to follow your suggestions."

"Focusing on the Batarians sounds like a good idea to me given the news I got from Fleet this morning." Admiral Williams said. "Their was another small attempt on Shanxi yesterday. More of a scouting run really. And the President has decided that we are going to start scouting their territory for the possibility of an invasion. The people back home don't like the idea of a agressive empire right next door, espically one that deals in slavery"

"We have a plan for the Batarians sir." Andy stated happily "They are a cast based system with the rulers on top and everyone else at different levels below them going from warrior down to slave. We hope that during the raids or even open war we will be able to send agents in to lead a uprising against the ruling class."

"The only two species we couldn't really figure out were the Elcor and the Hanar. The Volus we figured could just be swayed by giving them mining rights to Element Zero rich gas giants in our territory and investing much of what we hope to make on the market back into Volus held companies and banks." Hannah said and looked at the matriarch. "And we do mean every species."

The matriarch bowed her head a moment before looking up at the Admiral and Grand Master. "I suppose I should thank you for not bringing up the Quarians and Krogans until now. I know to outsiders it must look like the worst possible thing to do short of killing them, and it may be, but at the time everyone was acting on fear and afterwards the council didn't dare go back on their word less they looked weak."

"We understand that it's a hard thing to admit. And honestly it's not going to be very popular amongst our people because it mirrors some of the things we have done to ourselves in the past. But we need any and all the help we can get." Master Alinco said.

"Current estimations say that any net gain in Citadel space from helping either race will be in the single digits if at all. But it is still something our code calls for us to do." Hannah said "We just hope that the amount of new technologies, shows, songs, clothing styles, foods, and other exports will be able to offset that."

Before the Matriarch could respond a chime rang out and Andy switched the holoprojector to the picture of a frazzled guard and an angry looking asari woman. "Sirs their is a asari here wishing to see Matriarch Benezia. She uh" He flinched and looked over his shoulder at the woman "She uhh claims to be her husband."


	5. Chapter 5

**-June 2157. Day 0 of Operation Eclipse. GAS Avalon -**

Aethyta noticed many of the same things Benezia had on her first trip to the Avalon. From inside to the outer hull the ship was all smooth curves and angles. Form meeting with function. Even the smaller, more angular ships she had flown past seemed to exhibit an artistic flair, a design style that incorporated both deadly precision and artistic beauty. The lived-in look and feel of the corridors of the Avalon and old plexi-leather smell of the transport told her that these were machines that were meant to last, to be a home for its soldiers. It spoke of a command that cared for those serving it and a crew that had great attachment to their vessels.

It was a long walk to the observation deck. Not so long as to feel like someone was stalling but long enough to let her get a good look at the people serving on the ship and to prepare herself for the upcoming conversation. Her honour guard was three soldiers in full body armor of different colours and a young boy of about twenty-one who unlike his armored friends didn't have a helmet to hide his stare.

Aethyta smirked, if she had been a couple centuries younger she might have given the young Jedi Knight something to really stare at. She could already see at least on a physical level why so many of Benezia's crew had become attracted to these humans. And the reports to the Matriarchs spoke highly of their bravery and kindness during the battle with the Batarians. Here was a species that looked similar to the Asari, had the martial core of the Turians, sciences that surpassed the Salarians, and who knew what else back in their home systems.

A simple door slid open and allowed Aethyta to enter the observation deck. Her escort did not follow her in. Instead they took up positions on either side of the doorway. The helmeted guards removing their helmets, revealing two males and one female, each one with different coloured hair and skin. For some reason that was both shocking and amusing to Aethyta even though she had read the reports and she found herself chuckling as she entered the arboretum.

The arboretum stretched for dozens of meters each way until running up against the transparisteel bubble that let them view the Citadel and its fleet below them. On a warship a space like this would be a structural flaw that could be exploited during a battle. But this wasn't just a warship she supposed, it was a symbol. And really if something could blow through the shields of something this big then she doubted whether armor would matter at all.

Standing beside Benezia was a woman with flaming red hair tied in a braid that fell down to her back and an old wrinkled man who's hair barely covered his head. Both were wearing the same kind of garb the young knight she had left outside had been. Her agents had gotten their names but she was still unsure how the ranks worked in their order. She had enough bad run ins with the Justicars and hoped this order would be a little more reasonable.

"Welcome Matriarch," The old man said holding out a hand for her to shake "I'm Grand Master Alenko and the young lady to my left is my granddaughter Hannah Sheppard. And you are of course familiar with Matriarch Benezia" Master Alenko said with a chuckle.

"We have met before yes" Aethyta said feeling a chuckle being drawn from her in response to the old man's laugh. She could feel it, the subtle draw that the other Asari had talked about "I have to say I wasn't really expecting to meet with anyone else when you said I could come aboard."

"That was actually my idea Aethyta. I asked them to join us up here." Benezia said and touched a button on a small communicator attached to her wrist. Beside a small group of saplings a small round table with four benches rose out of the ground. "Come sit, before we talk we need to 'talk'".

"Ohh Bezzi we've never done it in a park before. If I had known you were this adventurous that trip to Rygon IV could have been much more interesting." Benezia rolled her eyes at the innuendo while Master Alenko let out a loud belly laugh.

"You know very well that is not what I mean." Benezia said taking the bench under the tree. Master Alenko and Knight Sheppard sat on either side of her leaving Aethyta to take the seat directly across. "I know how suspicious the Matriarchs are and I know that you make all of them look like a elcor passed out on hallex. So before we talk to you I want to show you that I'm not their little pet asari"

"We?" The pet asari part had of course crossed her mind and she herself would have suggested a meld before moving on. But it was the 'we' that confused Aethyta.

"Yes we, and hopefully you." Benezia said reaching out across the table and taking one of Aethyta's hands. This surprised Aethyta more than anything else at the moment. Benezia was never very emotional at the best of times, let alone in front of others. " Your concerns about our people, and how to deal with it, I've been thinking about them of late and trying to figure out how to fix it. And I think I've found the answer. These people want the same thing you and I do. But not just for our race but all of the Citadel."

Aethyta honestly didn't care much for the Citadel or any of the other races. Even the Krogan weren't all that special to her despite having a Krogan father. She was more concerned with the Asari Republics. She had read the reports, both the ones Benezia had sent out and the ones her agent on the Sofia Fos has passed along, and was thinking that these people were just what the Republics needed. And as she had noticed earlier they weren't too bad to look at either. "So why are they here?" She asked waving her hand towards the two jedi on either side of her.

"We're here to talk to you once Benezia has convinced you that we haven't brainwashed her or anything. And also to make sure you are here for the reasons you say you are." Alenko said

"You're going to read my mind, aren't you?" That had been one part of the report she had trouble believing. Sure Asari could meld with other beings but it required contact. No one could do it from inside a room.

"Why is reading minds always the first thing that comes up? It's either that or mind tricks" Sheppard said in an exasperated voice. " Jedi don't just go around reading minds. We can sense emotions from others and maybe a passing thought or two if someone is basically yelling it in their head. But we have to actually concentrate to be able to glean any real information from a person, something that we don't do often because of the damage it could cause to the subject. Think of this more like a lie detector test except not as inaccurate."

"So you're going to ask me how old I am, what my favorite colour is, and what planet I grew up on and then ask me why I'm here?" Aethyta took her hand back from Benezia's and clasped them together on the table.

"Ohh I would never ask a woman her age Matriarch but yes in its simplest form that is what we are going to do. While Benezia speaks highly of you the fate of all our people relies on us getting this right. So precautions have to be made." Alenko said in a patient tone.

"Ok then ask away" It was actually Hannah who did the questioning. While Hannah had more experience sensing the emotions and thoughts of the Asari than her grandfather and a deeper connection to beings emotions due to her battle meditation her grandfather still had decades more experience using the force in circumstances just like this. Well not totally, but close enough.

The questions went by quickly enough and during them Aethyta could swear she felt something tickling the back of her skull. It wasn't completely like how the beginning of a meld felt but it was close. After she had been cleared and told them that she had come to speak to Benezia about how they could help the Asari she and Benezia had entered the meld. Not fully, it wasn't as close and intimate as it had once been. But it let her see and hear everything Bezzi had from the moment her ship had popped out in front of the Human fleet to getting to the Citadel. There was nothing in her memories or emotions that made her think that Benezia was anything other than her normal self.

Aethyta closed her eyes and rubbed at her temples as she came out of the meld. That much information with all its emotional baggage over that little amount of time hurt. Opening her eyes to a world that now seemed much too bright she saw Hannah and Master Alenko looking back and forth between each other and her with a shocked look on their faces. "What is it?" Aethyta scowled, melding with Benezia always left her feeling vulnerable afterwards, a leftover bit of emotion from Benezia's side of the meld.

"Tha..that was a force bond." Hannah said "Or at least the closest thing to it I've ever seen in a non force user. Your force presences merged together for a moment before separating. There isn't anything connecting them anymore but there's still a bit of the others presence in each of your auras."

"Is that unusual?" Benezia aimed the question at Master Alenko who was rubbing at his chin.

"All Jedi create force bonds to some extent. Weak ones to their friends and family. Stronger ones between master and student or between a Jedi and their significant other. But only rarely does a true force bond happen where both people retain a bit of the other within themselves and are able to keep their presences connected at all times even across great distances. And this has never been seen outside of jedi before."

"Honestly we don't know what this means." Hannah said looking between the two of them. "So far Asari are the only biotics we have been able to sit down and sense. The turians didn't have any biotics in their fleet."

"No, Turians are more distrusting of biotics than some races. I think they just don't like any weapon they can't take from an enemy and beat them with personally" Aeytha didn't need much time to recover and start asking questions. If this was something the Jedi considered important she needed to be paying attention. "Could it have something to do with our biology?"

"Your species ability to bond with anyone could play a part in it. But there was something more to it than just basic biology" Hannah said. "What makes this even stranger is that our docs had been theorizing that eezo may block out the ability to connect with the force due to the way it bonds to the nervous system. If not, well…" Hannah trailed off and Benezia changed subjects.

"So now that everyone here knows that the other is on the level I need to ask you one final question Aeya" Benezia said using a name she only used on the most personal of occasions. "Could you agree to a plan that could help raise the Asari to new heights and save the lives of countless trillions even if it means that we will no longer be the guiding force of the Citadel."

Aethya thought about that for a moment. But only for a moment. She married an asari, she had a pureblood daughter, she even pushed for the Asari Republics to try and separate itself from the Citadel. But she wasn't stupid and despite all their fights and arguments she had never doubted Benezia's drive. "Yes, besides a little healthy competition will keep the Matriarchs from getting lazy and slipping back into bad habits. So what is it you have gotten us into Bezzie?"

Master Alenko chuckled and placed his hands flat on the table. "Long ago one of our earliest democracies, a people called the Greeks, outfitted their citizen soldiers with shields." Master Alenko was briefly interrupted by a long suffering sigh from Hannah who apologized for her grandfather's habit of starting off conversations with a philosophy, or in this case history lesson. "The cliepus had at one time been the most advanced shield they equipped their soldiers with. But as time went by and technology evolved the cliepus became something that wasn't given to the main army but to their allies who were fighting for them."

Aeytha didn't need the rest of the metaphor explained to her. In this case the Humans were the Greeks and they were viewing the Citadel races as the ones who would be using these shields. "But aren't you afraid of someone reverse engineering your technology and using it against you?" That was one reason the Asari had never revealed their hidden prothean beacon. That and because the lie had been so old at the start of the Citadel that revealing it now would shake up the entire alliance.

"That is of course a risk. And if the only people we had met had been say the Batarians or possibly Duccellus and his fleet we would be keeping this to ourselves. Focusing on our backup plans. But as I told Benezia we are people who have seen time and again what an alliance of different groups can do. And aside from the fact that this tech is totally alien to you and you guys do not have the infrastructure to power it let alone build it the tech will still be two or three generations out of date." Alenko said with a knowing smile.

"And anyways hopefully by the time operation Cilepus is in full swing and we have finally gotten your infrastructure to the point where you can build ships like the Nebula, MC 90, or the Majestic Frigates their won't be a you and us, their will just be the Alliance" Hannah said playing the good cop.

"Which alliance is it going to be? The Citadel Alliance or perhaps the Galactic Alliance?" Aeytha posed, "And even if it is the former how do you expect to get the galaxy to follow in step?"

"That is where we come in." Benezia said, "Operation Eclipse, and yes the humans do love their code names as much as the Salarians do, is going to be a push to introduce human culture and technologies to the galaxy and draw the civilians and the soldiers into the Alliances sphere of influence. Once that battle is won the politicians will either follow suit or will be voted out and replaced by others who are more open to a new way of doing things."

What Benezia had just described had sounded like a coup. A coup on a galaxy wide scale orchestrated by an alien government. A coup that would change the very foundations of a way of life that had stretched back to before these people had probably even discovered steam power. Surprisingly she didn't find herself shocked at this. Or rather it was unsurprising, her dream of a more independent and forward looking Asari Republic was always going to require changes to how decisions were made. "So what kind of time table are we looking at? I assume humans also like to move as quickly as the Salarians as well?"

"Yes, I have been called back to Thessia to meet with the Matriarch council. While I'm doing that I need you to help with reaching out to some of our contacts in the shipping and construction sector. While I'm on Thessia I'll work on diplomatic relations and publicity. " Benezia said

"Ohh so the're 'our' contacts again are they?" Aeytha said with a chuckle. Operation Eclipse, the plan to overshadow the Citadel as the leader of popular culture, technology, and economics was finally ready to begin.

 **-June 2157. Day 7 of Operation Eclipse. Thessia -**

Benezia left the council chambers followed as always by her commandos. The meeting went about as well as planned. Diplomacy is usually said to be a compromise where both sides come out unhappy. The people who said that had never spoken to her. Hours of being grilled by matriarchs who possibly hadn't left asari space in centuries had shown her just where the cracks were. Age, it seemed, was going to be the key factor in how the council was split. Though the loudest voice against the humans had actually been a relatively junior matriarch named Tevos who was a popular pick for being the next councilor for the Asari on the citadel.

Benezia had managed to get herself put in place as the chief diplomat to the Galactic Alliance and had gotten permission to form a group to go to the human homeworld and show off everything that made the Asari the predominant race in the galaxy. Benezia would happily do that of course, building a close relationship with the humans meant sharing their culture with them. But she also planned it so that human culture would also be shown off to the Asari and the Galaxy at large. If the trip went as well as her crew's introduction to the humans had gone there would be a fast bond between the two cultures. And where the Asari went the galaxy soon followed.

 **-June 2157. Day 12 of Operation Eclipse. Palavan Orbit, Nemi Naval Academy -**

"Thank you for meeting with me so quickly Admiral Suldonis" Captain Sitta said saluting with the crisp military protocol of a trained cadet just out of bootcamp. The General returned the salute with no less respect but with the speed of someone for whom formality had long since ceased to matter.

"I was no problem Captain" Suldonis said sitting behind the large marble wood desk and motioning for Sitta to do the same. "My aide didn't tell me why you are here but an old man can't help but hope that you are finally going to accept a position here at the academy."

Sitta's cheek flanges clacked together in laughter at the request. "No sir, I thank you for your offer and know what it would mean to be accepted at my age to teach at the naval academy but I'm not ready to leave the bridge just yet"

Suldonis nodded his head in understanding "Your eagerness is understandable captain and who knows a few years with a ship of your own may make you an even better instructor. But remember that part of duty means sometimes honouring commitments that may not be what we want to do."

"With due respect Admiral being out there with the fleet might be the best way to honour my commitment to the Hierarchy." Sitta said.

"Give me *your* report capitan" Suldonis leaned forward in his chair and looked at her with the hawkish glare his species was known for.

"The ships of the Galactic Alliance are like nothing we've ever seen. Actually I apologize we have seen them, in science fiction movies" Only a slight octave change exposed the excitement in Sittas voice.

"Today's science fiction is tomorrow's science fact" Admiral Suldonis replied. "I have read the reports on how they fight but tell me what you saw."

"They are fast and mobile. Their cruisers and frigates move like fighters and even their big destroyers maneuver like ships a quarter of their size. Their weapons allow them to fire from nearly every direction at once. They have guns meant just to take down shields and once they are down their main batteries melt through our armor like it's nothing. That is if there's anything for them to fire at by the time their swarms of fighters get done with them."

"And what of their defenses?"

"Their shields can withstand anything we can fire at them. The only reason they lost any ships was because they were so far outnumbered. And even then it took three or four batarian ships all firing at once on the smaller ships to bring down their shields. In an even fight I doubt they would lose even a single ship. And that doesn't include the tactical advantages of their FTL system. Sure we could get to a nebula first but once inside their FTL would allow them to dance around us like skitter flies. "

"You sound more excited about this than the admiralty does Sitta." Caitus said dropping the rank and settling back into his chair. "I take it this has to do with what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Yes sir." Sitta said still maintaining decorum despite the offer of continuing more informally. "What I saw changes the very way we fight wars and engage with an enemy. The tactics you taught me, the tactics you want me to teach others are simply not viable anymore. We need to advance if we don't want to be left behind and I'm worried that the admiralty will put their pride before their duty to the hierarchy.".

Admiral Suldonis slowly blew air out of his nasal passages, the hard bone causing it to whistle. "Officers, junior ones at that, do not normally come into a admiral's officer and call the leaders of the Turian Hierarchy stubborn idiots."

"Apologies sir. My patron is a bad influence on me." Captain Sitta said without an ounce of humor or remorse in her voice. Suldonis chuckled again and waved for her to continue. "The Galactic Alliance is inviting the Asari to their capital planet to set up diplomatic relations. Matriarch Benezia will be leading the mission and has herself requested a combined fleet of Turian, Salarian, and Asari ships to accompany them. The Alliance has even agreed to equip them with what they called class 8 hyperdrives since their jumpgates are all disabled."

"Yes I'm aware of that mission. The Hierarchy is even thinking of sending some of our best ships to impress these humans" Irony dripped from his tongue when he said impress. If anyone was going to be impressed by ships it would be the Turian navy. "And I've heard we are even going to be getting to keep the hyperdrives once the trip is over."

"The Alliance is also offering to help us deal with the increased raids from the Batarian Hegemony." Sitta didn't bother pretending that the pirates were not aligned with the Batarians. It was a political fiction that only ended up with more of her men and women dead because the powers that be wouldn't deal with the main threat. She took out a memory card from her breast pocket and slid it over to the Admiral. "Admiral Williams wished me to give this to you. Its a formal request for GA and Turian ships to work together to patrol the borders of turian space and hunt down any pirates or slavers we come across. It's his hope that not only will this help with the strain of the new attacks but will give both sides a chance to know each other and form a bond of comradery"

"A new crop of officers is about to graduate. Due to the rise in attacks they were going to be assigned to experienced officers and sent to fill in the gaps from these pirate raids. This would be a chance for an entire generation of new officers to experience the tactics that may well define naval strategy for the next century." Suldonis paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "That idiot Duccellus has already gone to his patrons and started pushing for them to treat these humans as a threat like the Krogans, saying they are a threat to our honored position as the galaxies's police. Well we've been wanting the Asari and Salarians to take up more of the responsibility any citizen has to their nation for centuries. And now that we have encountered another race that has offered to do just that I see no reason why we should turn them away."

Captain Sitta finally let herself relax into the chair. The admiral had been the one to teach her the very meaning of what it meant to be a citizen of the hierarchy and tried to pass that on to all of his students.

"Very well Captain I will make sure that the admiralty sees this message and use all my resources to get them to agree with it." The Admiral stopped with a dramatic pause "As long as you agree to lead a squadron and then spend one semester teaching what you have learned back here at the academy."

"Yes sir I understand. For the good of the Hierarchy" Sitta said upset at having let her guard down so soon, her excitement at having her own ship weighed down by the anchor that would be ninety days of stuffy classrooms. But when a matriarch asks one to do them a favor one rarely says no. Though she had been more than willing to honour Admiral William's request even before Benezia had asked her to do it as a favor for her. The humans had shown themselves to be as honorable and well disciplined as the turians she served alongside. It had left her with a desire to work with them again when her forces could add more to the fight.

Admiral Suldonis slipped the memory card into his pants pocket as he rose and circled around the table. Sitta rose as well and after a quick salute embraced him in a warm hug. "There with that out of the way it is time we head home. I'm sure Veldia already knows you're here. And if you don't drop by for supper she will have us both thrown into the brig."


	6. Chapter 6

- **-Date Unknown. Day XX of Operation Eclipse. Unknown Deep Space Relay-**

Hyphens of red and blue energy larger than a starfighter streaked across the space in between the small fleet of Galactic Alliance starships and the waiting Batarian ships. Shields crumpled and failed as waves of ion bolts impacted the Batarian ships, battering down their defenses and short circuiting their systems. The frigates easily fell under the combined onslaught of the bolts and the cruisers only lasted one or two bursts longer before they found their shields stripped away from them.

The canopy of the X-wing darkened as one of the huge bolts sailed by on its way to evaporate another portion of a batarian cruiser. This bolt was aimed for the back right wing and easily sheared it off from the cruiser's main body. This time the Galactic Alliance wasn't out numbered or had to deal with protecting any assets. And they weren't holding anything in reserve either.

Bolt after crimson bolt flew from the destroyers and cruisers and ate away at the ships of the opposing fleet. Instead of using their superior speed and maneuverability though the Galactic Alliance ships were staying motionary so that its flights of X-wings and B-wing bombers could use the barrages as cover from opposing fighters.

The Batarian fleet let out another wave of fighters from somewhere in what was left of their center formation and threw them against the incoming barrage hoping that the fighters VI would be able to let the ships make it through the barrage and attack the closely packed Alliance fighters. Guided by the Jedi battle meditation the pilots were able to fly nearly wingtip to wingtip just under the outgoing waves of blaster bolts that were protecting them from incoming fire. Still some of the pilots found it unnerving to be flying close enough to the blasts that their canopy kept darkening every second or two.

One X-wing, a newer model with blue stripes down its nose and over its wings, led the charge into the oncoming swarm of fighters. The blue X-wing and their squadron played a game of chicken with the incoming fighters, letting their shields absorb the incoming fire from the fighters small guns and targeting the Batarian starfighters with their missiles.

"Fox 3, Fox 3, Fire." Azure 1 said as twenty four proton torpedos sprang from their tubes in the X-wings snout and shot towards the incoming squadron of fighters and turning them into spinning hunks of shrapnel that were more dangerous to the x-wings than the guns had been. "Azure group break off into wing pairs and go hunting. Let's see how they like these blasters." Laranth pulled up hard on the stick and flipped her X-wing around to give chase to some of the surviving Batarian fighters. She could feel Sheppard's touch in the back of her mind lessen as she split off from the attack. Now that they were just hunting down targets of opportunity they didn't require the direct guidance of the meditation anymore. Still the little bit they were receiving was enough to give them an enhanced sense of victory and spatial awareness of everyone on the battlefield.

Laranth pulled her fighter though a number of tight maneuvers swinging from one fighter to the next and quickly taking it out. The heat buildup from the blasters caused the fighters subsystems to drop its shield and allow her to quickly chew through to the cockpit or fuel tanks. Occasionally she would get one of the missile pods and be rewarded with a nice explosion.

"Unrealistic. Batarians never use this many fighters. No council race does." Her Salarian co-pilot said as he swung around to pick a fighter off of her tail with a burst from all four lasers at the same time. He had been enjoying the variable fire rate of the X-wings canons and had yet to show the same way twice in a row.

"Lighten up Azure-2. This way is more fun" Laranth said flipping herself up onto her right wing and banking starboard. Looking up from the canopy she gave herself a moment to take in the view. Two Batarian dreadnoughts with twelve cruisers and thirteen frigates verses one Republic class Star Destroyer, its two MC40a cruiser escorts, and a double handful of Majestic cruisers, Mark I Assault frigates, and some Raider-class corvettes.

The Raider class corvettes were meant to be anti-starfighter patrol craft but were currently racing back and forth between the Batarian ships and riddling their shields and exposed sections with their fire causing the Batarians to have to group up closer with each other. Which was fine by the captains of the Majestics and Assault Frigates who were each individually choosing a target and taking them on one at a time and winning despite the difference in numbers and what should have been a difference in weight class going by the designations the Alliance craft had been given.

Closer to her she could see another Batarian ship go up as three B-wings corkscrewed away from it, their pilots apparently having fun rotating the t shaped wings around the central canopy. "Azure 1 this is Juno actual. Patrol 7 has been hit in its starboard engines and is trying to break away from the engagement. I need your squadron to provide covering fire from the Batarian fighters" Laranth clicked her comlink twice in reply and started to turn towards the Raider class corvette that had been designated as Patrol 7 at the start of the engagement.

"R2-7D what's the status of the other fighters?" Laranth asked the droid. As long as she thought of it as just a really personable VI she was able to stand having it sitting right behind her and controlling part of the ship. The R2 unit quickly queried the other R units in the squadron as they formed up behind Laranth and chirped happily as data scrolled down her display telling her that the worst damage was to Azure-3 and Azure-6, both of whom only had slight damage to their rear engines and their noses. Possibly from flying too close to an explosion. Or more likely though one.

Getting close to Raider-7 the com board suddenly lit up as Juno started broadcasting new instructions fleet wide. "Raider 2, Raider 5 break off your run now. We are detecting massive objects coming into range from the relay. Rapier and Flaichon groups converge with the Aurora and Nino to provide covering fire as they retrieve their fighters for refueling."

As soon as the instructions were over the space behind the fleet seemed to twist slightly and four more destroyers popped into existence. Her tacbord was a constant series of beeps as her R2 unit cataloged new ships and their threat level. After a moment the board was holding steady and Laranth let out a swear. "Ohh come on now that's not even fair." She moaned as her squadron formed up behind Raider-7's engines "That's twice as many as in the last two waves combined."

"Maybe now it will be an actual fight" Said a Turian who's name she hadn't been able to remember during the squadron assignments. "That destroyer of theirs could have taken on both the Batarian dreadnaughts by itself. Those cruisers were just icing on the chuuka cake."

This time the MC-40a's did engage the enemy dreadnaughts. Each one quickly targeted and took apart a Batarian dreadnought as it reverted to realspace. It was slightly cheating since they hadn't had time to bring their shields up in the microseconds after jumping in but the captains of the cruisers didn't see it that way. The Nebula class star destroyer took longer as it had to split fire between two dreadnaughts but it was still able to slag the main guns of the Batarian ships before they could bring their shields up. Leaving the final destruction of the dreadnaughts to the MC-40's it started picking off smaller Batarian cruisers as they jumped in.

Laranth could feel the skin on her head crests start to dry and itch and wished she could take the helmet off and give it a good scratch. At this point she had been in the fighter for nearly half an hour and needed a good bath and something to eat. Luckily for her the world outside of her canopy suddenly turned pitch black. Usually that would be the result of something very bad and most likely life ending for the pilot but in this case it was just followed up by a chorus of relieved sighs and cheers from her comms and her canopy popping open with a soft hiss.

"Group two now exiting simulator D. Group two please shower and meet in conference room eight twenty-four for debrief. Group seventeen you may now enter simulator A and wait for instructions" Laranth accepted the proffered hand of the human technician and extracted herself from the canopy a lot less gracefully than an Asari would usually do anything. Though most Asari hadn't spent the last half-hour in flight sim being thrown up against harder and harder odds.

"These simulators are most interesting. Can replicate nearly every aspect of a real space battle. Even network with other sims for training at the wing and fleet level" Azure-2 said pulling himself tiredly out of the canopy. Salarians were not known for their endurance and the pale skin and sunken eyes told her that Azure-2 would probably be taking a long soak in one of the pools back on his ship.

"Apparently even the ground pounders can get in on it." Azure-9 said as he walked over with the other two Turians from their squadron. "They have rooms that use holograms and moveable sections to test different squads. Something called the citadel challenge is even giving some of the turian commanders problems." Azure-9 sounded more proud of that than annoyed and Laranth wondered for a second if it was more of Sheppard still boosting their sense of comradery and excitement until she realized that she couldn't feel the jedi knight inside her head any longer.

"Having a droid copilot is slightly better than having a VI. Is a better conversationalist" Azure-6 cut in as the small squadron departed for the showers. They had been in drydock above Shanxi for four days while the Alliance techs worked on installing hyperdrives onto the small Citadel fleet. Hyperdrives were a dime a dozen in Alliance space so they felt safer installing them into the Citadel ships instead of opening up the relay system back to Sol. Laranth also knew that the hyperdrives were meant to get the Citadel Alliance navies interested in and familiar with hyperdrive technology. Just like these sims that the fleet had been taking part in were meant to do.

Even the after action reports were good ways for the Galactic Alliance leaders to see which races would most easily take to certain roles or ships in the fleet and how they could best fight together. She knew that Skirata had been running the Matriarch's commandos along with some STG members and Turian Cabal members though anti-pirate and kill house simulations. Hannah and some of the younger knights had even been sparing with them in hand to hand combat.

The four days on the Starbase felt more like a mix between a wargaming conference and a vacation. The starbase was large enough to accommodate at least one shift from every ship in the small fleet at one time and the civilian starport had even been opened up for those who wanted to walk around on solid ground. The crews of all the Galactic Alliance ships had been gently ordered to mingle with those of the other navies so it had become not uncommon to see a mixed group of Humans, Turians, Asari, and Salarians doing something together be it drinking or talking shop or taking part in some of the activities the station had to offer. A few of the diplomats had even been allowed to go down to the planet's capital and have dinner with its governor. Though from what Skirata had said that last part could be considered a war crime in some places.

 **-June 2157. Day 21 of Operation Eclipse. Lagrange 2 Sol System. STG stealth frigate-**

Upan Mepik looked out the window in disbelief at what he was seeing. If the humans were to be believed then just a scant hundred hundred years ago the rock below him had been a baren dusty ball. The planets only natural satellite was said to have been uninhabitable when the humans first stepped on it. But now his sensors were reading millions of lifesigns on the planet as well as robust bio-diversity.

The other planets had been the same. Giant floating refineries filled entirely with machines in the larger gas giants. Domed factory cities under clouds of gas on the second planet from the sun. Giant satellites collecting solar energy around the systems only star. Even more amazing was the fourth world and the third planets single moon. Both were said to have been dead worlds in the past but now looked blue and green from space.

The diplomats had been given brief background packets on Earth and the Galactic Alliance. Earth was somewhere between a hellworld and a garden world. Not as nice as Surkeesh but nicer than Palavan. The dossier had said that the Sol system had originally had only one inhabitable stellar body. Seeing the moons and planets terraformed into living breathing worlds he could just about buy the idea that a race who had only been in space for a little over two centuries had spread so far and so quickly. Thankfully so far they had not shown the aggressiveness of the Krogans.

Outside the ship one of the three lozenge shaped stations floated as the fleet prepared to travel on sublight engines for the rest of the trip. The stations had been in the packet as well. Golan III's. Each one as powerful as a destroyer. Shanxi had only had one Golan II when the Batarians attacked. Each of the planets they had passed in the system had been crowned with at least three Golan III's and their dossier said that Earth had seven.

That many weapons in their own system spoke of systematic paranoia. Yet their recent history didn't seem to indicate any sort of civil unrest. No colonial uprisings like the Turians faced. So Upan wondered what they were so afraid of. He had heard the broadcast the humans had made on the citadel. Everyone on the station had been given no choice but to listen. Upan himself was skeptical of the idea. But he was starting to think that humans at least believed it.

"Sargent I think we have finally broken through into one of the larger data nodes." A reedy voiced officer said from his station. Their frigate was officially there as just another support vessel for the Matriarchs personal ship. However they had been tasked with gaining as much information as they could about the Galactic Alliance before they were unleashed into civilized society.

"Good, start trawling the" He stopped for a second to try and remember what the Humans called their extranet "web for our list of key words and look for any companies that seem like they may do business with the government or military. Those will be our best backdoors to the actual systems"

A few moments later lights all over the ship blinked off leaving the crew bathed in the green glow of their monitors before those too shut off. One by one the monitors started to turn back on, each one showing a picture of a small cat on the screen waving at them. Behind the terminals the holographic display snapped to life and a giant blinking eyeball stared at them for a moment before turning to look at the rest of the ship. The eyeball blinked a few more times before it and the cats disappeared.

"What was that?" Upan asked the senior tech before the screens blinked off again. This time the lights stayed on. However the gravity did not. and the sudden acceleration of the ship down and away from the fleet caused everyone to fly towards the back. A series of loud bangs and grunts filled the small cabin and the ship stopped and moved back into position. By the time the crew untangled themselves the gravity had returned. However this time the computer blared at them that the O2 scrubbers had been shut off and that they had dropped shields.

Bangs could be heard inside the ship as it was impacted by small debris that had drifted away from the starports near the moon. A crack even formed on a window from a small bolt that had hit it from the side. Before the crew could get back to their seats and reassert control of the ship the computer informed them that both shields and the O2 systems were back online.

Breathing a sigh of relief the crew spun around in tired wonder as the hologram sprang back up to life. This time instead of a giant eyeball it was what appeared to be a human woman in a black uniform.

"Please do not try a stunt like that again while you are in our system." She said in the tone of a teacher tired of having to correct small children. "I am still not sure who in your society thought it was a good idea to make sure every piece of your tech was accessible from the same wireless network but they were idiots. If a hacker had gotten into your system and damaged your ship we could have had a diplomatic incident on our hands. If you wish to know something about us you will just have to do like everyone else and look it up on a wiki"

As the woman's hologram blinked out of existence the reedy voiced tech changed the search parameters on the computer to find out what a wiki was.

 **-June 2157. Day 21 of Operation Eclipse. Ossus Academy. Atlantic Ocean-**

Hannah was happy to be back on solid ground. Space was ok but the six days in dock while the hyperdrives and their generators were installed had been very busy between the wargames and her diplomatic duties, on top of that the fleet had taken a very long and circuitous path to earth. Earth's location and how to get to it was no secret. They had just needed to travel along paths that weren't blocked by mass shadows or clogged with traffic. And now four days after setting off from Shanxi she was standing on the artificial island in the Atlantic created to house the main Jedi Academy.

Stepping out of her transport Hannah shielded her eyes from the sun and scanned over the other E-9 Transports and X-83 Twintail starfighters sitting in the temple's main landing field around a large open space that had been made for the Matriarch's shuttle.

"Matriarch I'm glad you could join us. I'm sorry that my Grandfather got called away by the president." Hannah greeted the Matriarch as she came down from the ramp flanked by the two commandos who had accompanied her on the Avalon. An assortment of diplomats and officers spilled out after her, their eyes instantly going to the huge stepped ziggurat that spread out for hundreds of acres around them only to be topped by a large transparisteel cube which seemed to have a smaller upside down ziggurat balancing on top of it.

"It is fine, I'm sure we will be talking again soon enough." The matriarch said taking a moment to soak in the sight of the temple. Its sides and plateaus seemed to be covered in creeping vines and large leafy trees giving it more the appearance of a small hill than a building of stone and steel. " Honestly I'm glad they decided to allow us to start our tour here instead of jumping straight into the parades and handshakes."

"Where is here anyways?" Asked a young Turian diplomat who she suspected had been voted as that group's official question asker. Hannah smiled at him and started what was going to be the first of many renditions of the Jedi's history as the different groups of diplomats were shuttled down to the island.

"This is the Ossus Academy. The ground you are standing on was artificially created so that the Jedi Order would have its own parcel of land for training and meditation away from the congestion of the cities or local bureaucracies. The only people who live here are the Academy staff, the students, the temple workers, and some of the families of students who decided to move closer to their child's school. This island gives us a pretty large area to be able to train in without getting into anyone's hair..erm scalp" Hannah was still surprised that Humans seemed to be the only species with hair but the group seemed to understand what she was saying.

"So is this your only temple?" The turian asked as they started to move towards the towering structure.

"No, Other temples have been created on the planet and we even have some outposts on the more distant colonies. Either closer to major population hubs so younger students wouldn't have to travel so far from their families or more specialized temples focused on one aspect of the force or the sciences." Hannah said and slightly picked up the pace as she saw a figure coming out the door. She could already sense his presence in the force glowing like a dim light compared to the novas of the other Knights. "A small temple was even built across from the Galactic Alliance headquarters in Quebec for when the Masters Council needed to hold meetings with the government or military. But Ossus is special. It's named after a planet that housed two Jedi temples in the old galaxy. One from the birth of the original order and one from a reborn order that came long after."

Reaching the edge of the landing pad Hannah leapt forward and wrapped her arms around her husband. Scott quickly returned the embrace and held her tight for a long kiss. "You're back early." Scott said wrapping an arm around his wife's waist. "That or I spent a lot more time in the lab than I thought."

"What can I say. We just got homesick and decided to turn around and come back." Hannah said giving him another kiss and turning back to the crowd. "Ambassadors this is my husband Scott Sheppard, chief engineer of the MAW research installation." Scott quickly started shaking hands and making introductions with the crowd as they started their move towards the temple.

"Let me guess, chief engineer and head of the grant committee?" Benezia asked as they walked through the large durasteel doors that had been molded to look like large stone slabs.

"Yeah something like that" Hannah said as Scott worked his way through the small crowd leaving behind a wake of laughter and well shaken hands as he moved back toward the front. "Though I'm sure he will end up disappearing into some hole tonight during the reception to talk shop all night."

Scott made his way back to the front and wrapped his arms around Hannah's waist again as they moved into one of the central passageways of the temple complex. "You do know me so well."

"Speaking of the reception tonight what is our itinerary going to be?" Asked the groups elected asker-of-questions.

"Well after the dinner tonight the powers that be were thinking of a parade at the capitol tomorrow followed by some tours around different cultural heritage landmarks, some museums, and some of our factories and shipyards." Scott turned around to talk to them as they walked. "Don't worry though the information will be sent to datapads in your rooms and you will be allowed to pick and choose which events you would like to go to. However I do think they want everyone at a few of them. You know for kissing babies, shaking hands, and meeting holodrama stars"

"Most reasonable." Said a salarian diplomat in the back that Scott was convinced was really one of the STG officers director Kalendia had told him about. "We should try to set up parades on our homeworlds as well."

 **-June 2157. Day 27 of Operation Eclipse. Challa Teahouse. Persidum-**

Videos of the Matriarch's trip Sol had spread like wildfire in citadel space, especially among the people of the Citadel who had been the first to 'meet' these new aliens and wished to see what their homeworld looked like. In some ways it was a disappointment. The humans had flying cars and hover trains and wide patches of protected land surrounding beautiful gleaming cities and huge starports just like the Citadel races had. Sure they used different technology but there wasn't anything really alien about them. On the other hand it was reassuring to the people of the galaxy that despite the huge ships they showed up in and their dire warnings of a shadowy threat that these people were not dangerous warmongers or cultureless barbarians.

And the culture was already something that was starting to be traded. Two days after the Matriarch's return the first Holonet buoy was placed near the Citadel allowing the Citadel access to the Galactic Alliance holonet, both for communication between governments and between civilians. Human movies and games had become a quick hit with the inhabitants of the citadel and it was rumored that the human holodrama companies were already reaching out to Citadel talent agencies to hire Asari actresses for upcoming works.

While the question of the Alliance's role in the Citadel hadn't formally been answered yet and while there were still questions open about the true nature of droid intelligence the Citadel had allowed the Galactic Alliance to start trading with other corporations and transferring to the galactic credit.

While Benezia was the businesswoman of the two it was Aethyta who was responsible for cutting through the red tape and getting a number of meetings set up with Citadel Corporations and a rep from the Galactic Alliance. Many of whom were snapping at the bit to be the first to strike a deal with these new players.

"The volus were very happy to act as the GA's main stock brokers" A thin grey haired englishman said. "Just the money coming in from mining rights alone made them perk up. Apparently our reliance on using droids for our mining and production facilities means we can outstrip many of their main providers when it comes to resources like iridium, helium 3, or palladium"

"I got the same reaction from the Omega Coalition of Cargo Transporters. They would really love to get their hands on our hyperdrives to make inter system travel faster. Plus with the numbers we will be putting out they will probably need to buy some transport barges to keep up the pace" His chinese college said as he lazily stirred his tea.

"The Truians and Salarians have already made requests for us to send techs and show them how to install hyperdrives into their ships." The Englishman said. "And the Asari are voting on it tomorrow"

"That would be a major waste of time." His companion finally stopped stirring his tea and took a long satisfied drink of the purple asari beverage.

"Yeah which is why we are going to be selling them some of the old orbital assembly facilities and send our own techs to show them how to start building the ships." The Englishman also tested his tea and sat it back down to look for more sugar.

"We don't waste time trying to bring their ships up to spec and they are going to need all of those nice resources we will be selling. Sounds like a win-win to me. I'm assuming we are also going to be selling the shipyards to civilian corporations?" The Chinese businessman asked. "Or are we just going to sell them the ships?"

"Just the ships. It's not as vital that the civilians have ships on our level. We will work on getting more civilian ships onto market to boost trade and for use if they ever need to evacuate but the military feels we shouldn't waste the shipyards making sure everyone can get the new Horizon Star Yacht that they are coming out with" The Englishman finally found the sugar packet and dumped it into his tea ignoring the look he got from his companion.

"I had been wondering since I had heard about them taking two of the Haven-class mobile space docks out of storage." The Chinese businessman picked up one of the small seed filled biscuits and tried it with his tea. "Ya know, it's a good thing the Asari already agreed to a shipping deal for their tea."

"Ohh go space yourself." The Englishman replied in good humor. "Though I wonder how Maria is doing on that angle? From what she made it sound like there are already a lot of the entertainment and fashion companies on both sides practically bashing down the door."

The Chinese businessman took a second to check his datapad to see if there had been any updates from Maria "She's saying that Antonio is handling that. She's more focused on the electronics corporations. Remember everything these people make are on very easily hackable wifi and based on Ezzo tech. It would be easy for the enemy to use that against us in a war."

"Good good. Now to just deal with some of the exploration corporations." The Englishman dipped one of the seed biscuits into his tea and sloshed it around. "I know the plan is to eventually allow some of the species to open colonization inside our borders but for the time being we are trying to sell ourselves as a safe quick alternative to their current method of checking relays. Instead of them having to wait decades or centuries to see what's on the other side of a relay we can just zip right over and be back in a day or two."

"I'm assuming the 9th fleet will handle those operations?"

"The Seventh actually. The 9th has been requested to help deal with the pirate attacks along Batarian space." The Englishman finally took a bite of the biscuit and finding it to his liking pilled a few more onto his plate.

"So the pirate hunters will be looking for new planets while the explorers deal with pirates. I wonder how that happened?" The Chinese businessman also grabbed a few more of the biscuits before his English partner could steal them all.

"Some request from the diplomatic corps I suppose. The 9th were the ones to make first contact. Anyways the navigators guild has offered their services to the Citadel to begin scanning inside the local clusters for more planets they may have written off due to the lack of a relay. With more and more hyperspace equipped civilian ships entering the market it won't be long until they can start expanding to planets they have given up on."

"And we look like the heroes all around while making enough credits to keep up our production schedule." The chinese man held up his teacup "Cheers"

 **Galactic Alliance Fleet Composition:**

 **Heavy Dreadnought (1 design):** Viscount-Class Star Defender

 **Destroyers (3 designs):** Nebula-Class Star Destroyer, Defender-Class Star Destroyer, and MC90 Class Star Cruiser

 **Cruisers (3 designs):** Majestic-Class Heavy Cruiser, MC40a Light Cruiser, and MC80B Star Cruiser

 **Frigates (3 designs):** Corona-Class Frigate, Assault Frigate MK1, and Ardent-Class Fast Frigates

 **Corvettes (3 designs):** Agave- Class Picket ship, Raider-Class Corvettes, and Free Virgillia-Class Bunker Busters

 **Carriers(2 designs):** Endurance-Class Fleet Carrier and Defender-Class Assault Carrier

 **Scouts (2 designs):** Prowler-Class Recon Vessel and Ferret-Class Recon Vessel

 **Transports (5 designs):** U-55 Orbital Load Lifter, E- 9 Explorer, UT-60D Uwing support craft, Bantha-Class Assault Shuttle, and Simiyiar-Class Light Freighter

 **Starfighters (6 designs)** : XJ-7 X-wing, X-83 TwinTail starfighter (used by Jedi Order), E-Wing escort Starfighter, RZ-1 A-Wing interceptor, A/SF B-Wing Bomber, BTL-S8 K-wing Assault Bomber

 **Galactic Alliance Army Composition:**

 **Tanks (4 Designs):** TX-130 Saber-Class Fighter Tank, S-1 FireHawke Heavy Repulsortank, Anti-Aircraft Combat Tank-2, and AT-TE's

 **Speeders (5 designs):** 74-Z Speeder Bike, BARC Speeder bike, A-A5 Speeder Truck, Arrow-23 Landspeeder, Freerunner repulsor craft

 **Troop Transport (4 Designs):** HAVwAS Juggernaut, HTT-26 Heavy Troop Transport, Low Altitude Assault Transport (Modular for infantry and armor support), and TC9 Hover Transport

 **Galactic Alliance Army Weaponry:**

 **Blaster Rifles (4 models)** : A-300 Blaster rifle, DH-17 Blaster Rifle, A295 Blaster Rifle, and A-180 Blaster (modular attachments)

 **Blaster Carbines (3 models):** A-52 Rancor-X Carbine, CDEF Carbine, ST-W48 Blaster Carbine

 **Sniper Rifles (3 models):** NT-242 Sniper Rifle, A295 Sniper rifle, and Tac-HUD Heavy Sniper Rifle

 **Blaster Pistols (3 models):** WESTAR-35 Blaster Pistol, DT-25 Shielded Blaster, L-23 Blaster Pistol

 **Shotguns (2 models):** SX-21 Scatterblaster, A-11 Field Specialist Shotgun


End file.
